In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the landmark report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. The report revealed that one million people in the United States suffer from preventable medical injuries and 100,000 die from them every year. Since that time, the IOM panel called on health care organizations, doctors' groups, regulators, government agencies and Congress to make patient safety a priority. Medical errors most often result from a complex interplay of multiple factors. The chief culprit is often inadequate dissemination and implementation of ideas and practices that are known to be effective.
Learn more about what the Academy and other organizations are doing to improve patient safety, and how you can get involved.
Patient Safety in the Primary Care Office
AAFP Involvement
-- Links to the Academy’s strategic priorities for patient safety, Robert Graham Center Library, and the Developmental Center for Research and Evaluation in Patient Safety-Primary Care (DCREPS-PC).
Institute of Medicine Publications
-- Links to IOM publications on patient safety, quality improvement and performance improvement, published by the National Academies Press.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Medical Errors and Patient Safety
-- Access AHRQ resources on medical errors and patient safety.
