Publication

Abstract : The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) first Quality Chasm report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System,1 stated that medication-related errors (a subset of medical error) were a significant cause of morbidity and mortality; they accounted “for one out of every 131 outpatient deaths, and one out of 854 inpatient deaths”1 (p. 27). Medication errors were estimated to account for more than 7,000 deaths annually.1 Building on this work and previous IOM reports, the IOM put forth a report in 2007 on medication safety, Preventing Medication Errors.2 This report emphasized the importance of severely reducing medication errors, improving communication with patients, continually monitoring for errors, providing clinicians with decision-support and information tools, and improving and standardizing medication labeling and drug-related information.