IOM Vision for Reducing Medical Errors Not Yet Realized

Has the U.S. made any progress on patient safety since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released To Err is Human in 1999?  According to Consumers Union, few of the IOM’s recommendations have been implemented.  In a recently released report, Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project highlight’s the following areas as falling short of the IOM’s recommendations for tackling preventable medical mistakes:

 

Prevention of medication errors:  Only a minority of hospitals has implemented computer physician order entry systems, the Food and Drug Administration has not reviewed and changed enough confusing and sound alike drug names, and there is not yet a system for reporting medication errors by facility.

Transparency:  There are still 24 states that do not require public disclosure of infections or other quality and safety data.

 

Measurement: the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that patient safety has actually declined year after year, but still has too little data to make accurate assessments.

 

Standards for Competency: Efforts to boost the competency of health care providers have been scattered and criticized.