Safe health care: are we up to it?

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7237.725

BMJ 2000;320:725-726 ( 18 March )

Editorials

Safe health care: are we up to it?

We have to be

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the eight months since we put out the call for papers for this special issue of the BMJ devoted to medical errors, thelandscape has changed considerably. In Britain the Bristol Inquiryhas continued to focus professional and public attention on patientsafety in a manner unprecedented both for its depth and for theextent of professional involvement.¹ In the United States therecent publication of the report To Err is Human by the Instituteof Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences² received extraordinarymedia coverage as well as prompt responses to its recommendationsfrom the President and Congress.³

The error prevention "movement" has clearly accelerated. As the papers in this issue bear witness, major changes are occurringin the way we think about and carry out our daily work. For practisingphysicians, some of the ideas and practices described here maybe mind bending, or at least . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rates of medication errors among depressed and burnt out residents: prospective cohort study: Amy M Fahrenkopf, Theodore C Sectish, Laura K Barger, Paul J Sharek, Daniel Lewin, Vincent W Chiang, Sarah Edwards, Bernhard L Wiedermann, and Christopher P Landrigan
BMJ 2008 336: 488-491. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Reducing error, improving safety: Victor Barley, Graham Neale, Christopher Burns-Cox, Paul Savage, Sam Machin, Adel El-Sobky, Anne Savage, Aziz Sheikh, Brian Hurwitz, C K Connolly, Pia Maria Jonsson, Göran Tomson, Lars Räf, Ken McCune, Ron Law, Roger M Goss, Anonymous, Carlos A Estrada, James Carter, Clyde Brooks, Ann C Jobe, Jonathan Aldridge, Peter Freeland, Brenda Ashcroft, Max Eistein, Nicholas Boreham, Peter J Shirley, Leo Strunin, Maldwyn Morgan, Paul Cartwright, and Robert P Coffey
BMJ 2000 321: 505. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Facing up to medical error
BMJ 2000 320: 0. [Full Text] [PDF]

Facing up to medical error
BMJ 2000 320: 0. [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Fahrenkopf, A. M, Sectish, T. C, Barger, L. K, Sharek, P. J, Lewin, D., Chiang, V. W, Edwards, S., Wiedermann, B. L, Landrigan, C. P (2008). Rates of medication errors among depressed and burnt out residents: prospective cohort study. BMJ 336: 488-491 [Abstract] [Full text]
Kirk, S., Parker, D., Claridge, T., Esmail, A., Marshall, M. (2007). Patient safety culture in primary care: developing a theoretical framework for practical use. Qual Saf Health Care 16: 313-320 [Abstract] [Full text]
Braithwaite, J., Westbrook, M. T, Mallock, N. A, Travaglia, J. F, Iedema, R. A (2006). Experiences of health professionals who conducted root cause analyses after undergoing a safety improvement programme. Qual Saf Health Care 15: 393-399 [Abstract] [Full text]
Sokol, D. K, Hettige, S. (2006). Poor handwriting remains a significant problem in medicine. JRSM 99: 645-646 [Full text]
Buetow, S, Elwyn, G (2006). Are patients morally responsible for their errors?. J. Med. Ethics 32: 260-262 [Abstract] [Full text]
Amalberti, R., Auroy, Y., Berwick, D., Barach, P. (2005). Five System Barriers to Achieving Ultrasafe Health Care. ANN INTERN MED 142: 756-764 [Abstract] [Full text]
Schmidek, J M, Weeks, W B (2005). Relationship between tort claims and patient incident reports in the Veterans Health Administration. Qual Saf Health Care 14: 117-122 [Abstract] [Full text]
Lewis, R Q, Fletcher, M (2005). Implementing a national strategy for patient safety: lessons from the National Health Service in England. Qual Saf Health Care 14: 135-139 [Abstract] [Full text]
Tuttle, D, Holloway, R, Baird, T, Sheehan, B, Skelton, W K (2004). Electronic reporting to improve patient safety. Qual Saf Health Care 13: 281-286 [Abstract] [Full text]
Frank, S., Holloway, R. (2003). Medical errors on an inpatient neurology service. Neurology 61: 254-257 [Abstract] [Full text]
Avery, T. (2003). Book: Medication Errors: Lessons for Education and Healthcare. BMJ 326: 555-555 [Full text]
Amoore, J., Ingram, P. (2002). Quality improvement report: Learning from adverse incidents involving medical devices. BMJ 325: 272-275 [Abstract] [Full text]
Campbell, S M, Sheaff, R, Sibbald, B, Marshall, M N, Pickard, S, Gask, L, Halliwell, S, Rogers, A, Roland, M O (2002). Implementing clinical governance in English primary care groups/trusts: reconciling quality improvement and quality assurance. Qual Saf Health Care 11: 9-14 [Abstract] [Full text]
Eggimann, P., Pittet, D. (2001). Infection Control in the ICU. Chest 120: 2059-2093 [Abstract] [Full text]
Phillips, K. A., Veenstra, D. L., Oren, E., Lee, J. K., Sadee, W. (2001). Potential Role of Pharmacogenomics in Reducing Adverse Drug Reactions: A Systematic Review. JAMA 286: 2270-2279 [Abstract] [Full text]
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Gough, M H, Buss, P., Wilson, T., Turton, C., Nottingham, J., Rubin, G., Horton, R., Maran, N. J, Glavin, R. J, Grunewald, R. A, Mack, C. J, Root, T., Stefanou, A., Siderov, J., de Lemos, M., Langford, N J, Martin, U, Kendall, M J, Ferner, R E, Smith, N., Burns-Cox, N., Solomon, L., Holmes, S. (2001). Medical errors. BMJ 322: 1421-1421 [Full text]
Davies, H T O (2001). Public release of performance data and quality improvement: internal responses to external data by US health care providers. Qual Saf Health Care 10: 104-110 [Abstract] [Full text]
Berwick, D. M (2001). Not again!. BMJ 322: 247-248 [Full text]
Barley, V., Neale, G., Burns-Cox, C., Savage, P., Machin, S., El-Sobky, A., Savage, A., Sheikh, A., Hurwitz, B., Connolly, C K, Jonsson, P. M., Tomson, G., Räf, L., McCune, K., Law, R., Goss, R. M, Anonymous, , Estrada, C. A, Carter, J., Brooks, C., Jobe, A. C, Aldridge, J., Freeland, P., Ashcroft, B., Eistein, M., Boreham, N., Shirley, P. J, Strunin, L., Morgan, M., Cartwright, P., Coffey, R. P (2000). Reducing error, improving safety. BMJ 321: 505-505 [Full text]
Singer, P. A (2000). Recent advances: Medical ethics. BMJ 321: 282-285 [Full text]
Hughes, C. F (2000). Cardiothoracic Surgery and Lessons from the Cockpit. Asian Cardiovasc. Thorac. Ann. 8: 95-96 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Lack of Directors Accountability and Defensive Medicine are at the Foundations of Medical Errors: Dan Michaeli
bmj.com, 17 Mar 2000 [Full text]
Managing the risk of technology: Stan Goldstein
bmj.com, 20 Mar 2000 [Full text]
Time for no fault compensation?: Tim Ballard
bmj.com, 21 Mar 2000 [Full text]
To err is human, to ignore reality is bad science: John P Heptonstall
bmj.com, 21 Mar 2000 [Full text]
Re: To err is human, to ignore reality is bad science: John F Morgan
bmj.com, 22 Mar 2000 [Full text]
Beware: physicians at large!: Tom Oommen
bmj.com, 21 Apr 2000 [Full text]
Re: Re: To err is human, to ignore reality is bad science: John P Heptonstall
bmj.com, 24 Mar 2000 [Full text]
Studying medical error in general practice: Aziz Sheikh, et al.
bmj.com, 28 Mar 2000 [Full text]
Patient Safety: Victor Barley
bmj.com, 18 Apr 2000 [Full text]
Re: Medical error non-existent in primary care?: Peter von Kaehne
bmj.com, 9 Aug 2000 [Full text]
Medical error non-existent in primary care?: George Dowswell, et al.
bmj.com, 8 Aug 2000 [Full text]
Tackling the "barriers of shame and punishment": Alex Gatherer
bmj.com, 6 Feb 2001 [Full text]
Re: Patient Safety: Graham Neale
bmj.com, 22 Apr 2003 [Full text]