Health Affairs, 22, no. 2 (2003): 102 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.22.2.102 © 2003 by Project HOPE	New Online   How Would Obama, McCain Cover The Uninsured?   Debating Cost Of Uninsured   Try Medicare-For-All   HA Blog Top 10

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Patient Safety

PROLOGUE

Failure To Ensure Patient Safety

PROLOGUE: A recent study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported nationwide improvements in the treatment of Medicare patients in twenty of twenty-two quality indicators between 1998 and 2001. Obviously, such findings are heartening to those tracking progress in implementation of strategies intended to close the quality gap in health care delivery. In stark contrast, however, another major quality driver—medical error—has once again vaulted to national prominence because of the conspicuous absence of positive progress to report.

The scope of the problem appears to be staggering. The seminal 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err Is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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