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In 1999 the IOM published To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, a frightening indictment of the inadequate safety that the United States medical establishment too often provides its patients 1. Extrapolating from data gathered through the Harvard Medical Practice Study (HMPS) and the Utah-Colorado Medical Practice Study (UCMPS) 2, the IOM report concluded that medical errors cause between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths annually—more than result from automobile accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297) or AIDS (16,516) 1.

The report also noted that, in addition to causing human suffering and death, medical errors are financially costly. With regard to direct costs, the IOM estimated that, among US hospital inpatients, medication errors alone cost approximately two billion dollars annually. With regard to indirect costs, errors result in opportunities lost, given that funds spent in correcting mistakes cannot be used for other purposes, as well as in higher insurance premiums and co-payments. In addition, due to their effect on diminished employee productivity, decreased school attendance, and a lower state of public health, such errors exact a price from the society-at-large. Specifically, the IOM estimated that the total indirect cost of medical errors that result in patient harm lies between 17 and 29 billion dollars annually. Finally, and equally perilous in the long run, medical errors undermine patients’ and health professionals’ confidence in the healthcare system itself.