PROFESSION

Cutting medical errors means systems, money

IOM panel chair says patients should leave hospitals with fewer medical problems, not more.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Dec. 8, 2003.

Correcting safety deficiencies in the nation's health care system will require technological solutions that will not work without universal data standards and are unlikely to be developed without some kind of federal funding.

That was the message delivered by the chair of the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Data Standards for Patient Safety, Paul C. Tang, MD, chief medical officer for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Dr. Tang was unveiling the IOM's latest report: "Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care."

The release of the IOM report, in mid-November, came just two days after the U.S. Pharmacopeia released its own report analyzing the 192,477 medication error reports voluntarily submitted by 482 hospitals into the MEDMARX database.

Dr. Tang noted that the IOM's 1999 report, "To Err is Human," alerted the public to the problem of medical errors. The IOM's 2001 report, "Crossing the Quality Chasm," described how these errors were mostly the fault of weaknesses in the health care system and not necessarily the fault of individuals.

Using electronic health records can significantly shore up these weaknesses, he said, and "Achieving a New Standard of Care" offers a blueprint to step up implementation of electronic systems.

"The aviation industry takes great pains to ensure that the number of landings equals the number of takeoffs," said Dr. Tang during a press conference held in Washington, D.C. "Similarly, patients discharged from the hospital should have fewer medical problems, not more.

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