Collection and Reporting Patient Safety Data Within the Military Health System

摘要

On November 29, 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report entitled 'To Err is Human, Building a Safer Health System'. The report estimated that as many as 44,000 to 98,000 patients die each year in the United States as a result of medical errors. As a result of the findings in the report, the President issued a memorandum on December 7, 1999, directing the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force to evaluate the report recommendations. The Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) has proposed a centralized, DoD- wide patient safety reporting program to reduce occurrence of medical errors. The program focuses on prevention of medical errors through centralized reporting of patient safety data and sharing the data and lessons learned throughout DoD. The Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) requested that we review the proposed patient safety reporting program.