ABSTRACT
Patient safety has become a major concern throughout the world. In the United States (Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force, 2000) the United Kingdom (Department of Health, United Kingdom [DOH/UK], 2000), and in a number of other countries, major patient safety program activi ties have been launched in response to startling fig ures on the number of individuals that are harmed from health care associated injuries. Health care associated injuries are those associated with the process or structure of care rather than to a patient’s
underlying or physiological, environmental, or disease-related antecedent conditions (Battles & Lilford, 2003).
