The Importance Of Safety In Healthcare

Did We Improve Safety in Healthcare?

Medical error is considered to be the third leading cause of death in the United States which, is estimated to cause 250,000 deaths each year (Sternberg, 2016). In 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) conducted an extensive study outlining the need for more oversight into medical errors and the impact on health care cost and the healthcare system in the United States. According to the IOM report in 2009, medical error was the eighth leading cause of death and at the time accounted for about 98,000 deaths each year (Consumer Union, 2009). Medical error is defined any actions that result in harm to patients. Medical error can be a result lack of appropriate action of hospitals or medical professionals. …show more content…
In the article, the IOM expressed extreme concern of the amount of preventable deaths that occur yearly. The article evaluated medical error over 10 years from 1999 to 2009 (Consumers Union, 2009). Over the span of 10 years the article outlines an increase of preventable death and harm to patients. The article suggests that hospitals and the Federal Drug Administration are not intervening enough to establish accountability of healthcare organizations and medical professionals. Furthermore, the IOM recommended establishing a national system of accountability, but have failed to implement a national system of accountability (Consumers Union, 2009). As a result of failing to implement accountability and visibility of medical error, medical error has increased wasting billions of dollars and at the expense millions of …show more content…
Medical error in 1999 was the eighth leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Since 1999, there have been numerous attempts to evaluate if the United States have made progress with patient safety by using the recommendations created by the Institute of Medicine. Did the United States succeed in reducing medication error? Are healthcare organizations establishing error-reporting systems that facilitate accountability and transparency? Is there any progress with developing a national tracking systems to check the progress of patient safety efforts? The answers would definitely be no. Medical error is now the third leading cause of death claiming lives of at least 250,000 people each year which is equivalent to 10 percent of deaths annually (Sternberg, 2016). It is believed that patient safety efforts are failing because there is no national safety standard guideline. Healthcare reform has been successful in regards to improving access to healthcare but there is still work to be done in an effort to improve the reporting of medical error (Sternberg,