ABSTRACT
Medication errors have been widely publicized over the past two decades-Betsy Lehman, the Boston Globe reporter, died from an overdose during chemotherapy, and Ben Kolb, an eight-year-old, died during minor surgery due to a drug mix-up. Although these medication errors were widely publicized in the news, it was not until the release of the 1999 IOM report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (hereinafter IOM Report), that policymakers and other stakeholders elevated issues surrounding medication errors and patient safety to the national level.
