Slide Presentation from the AHRQ 2007 Annual Conference

Patient Safety

• Definition
  • "freedom from accidental injury due to medical care, or medical errors." (IOM, 1999)
  • "the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim...[including] problems in practice, products, procedures, and systems." (Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force, 2000)
• Each year, more than 44,000 Americans die in hospitals due to preventable medical errors (AHA, 1999).

Notes:

To Err Is Human, p. 31.