by Colin Konschak
Patient safety has come under closer scrutiny in recent years and experts agree that human factors are major contributors to adverse events in healthcare. In its 1999 landmark report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System,” the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 patients die each year as a result of medical errors at an estimated annual cost of $29 billion.i Medical errors, two-thirds of which are preventable, are the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S. each year.ii As medicine relies on increasingly complex technologies, this problem will only intensify. For example, The New York Times recently conducted a study that found an alarming number of injuries related to radiation therapy. The injuries, which should have been avoidable, were caused by faulty programming, poor safety procedures, software flaws that should have been recognized, and inadequate staffing and training.iii
Like medicine, aviation relies on teams of experts working together to carry out complex procedures that, if not executed properly, can have serious consequences. If 98,000 people died in plane crashes each year, it would be the equivalent of a fatal jet crash – 268 passengers – every day. Airlines, however, have taken steps to prevent such catastrophes and health care providers are taking note.
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