ABSTRACT
The last thing people want to think about when entering a hospital or doctor’s office is the possibility of becoming a victim of medical error. However, in 2000, with the publication of To Err is Human by the Institute of Medicine, the public became very aware that healthcare might not be as safe as previously believed. In the revealing study, Kohn, Corrigan, and Donaldson (2000) reported that, in the United States, as many as 98,000 people die each year due to preventable medical error. Similar results were found in Canada and Europe. Baker and Norton (2004), in an investigation of adverse medical events in Canada, found that up to 70,000 of 2.5 million patients admitted to acute care will experience a preventable adverse event. The European Union has reported that preventable medical errors occur in 8-12 percent of hospital admissions (Conklin, 2009).
