In the landmark report, “To Error is Human,” the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine revealed that pf the more than 20 million Americans who check into hospitals nationwide, one in twenty of these patients will be the victim of a medical error. Approximately one million medical errors are made in hospitals every year, resulting in about 98,000 deaths annually. This makes medical errors one of the nation’s leading causes of death.

This program describes the findings and recommendations of the report, including the three types of medical errors identified in the report and the need to change to a “systems” based approach to analyzing and correcting medical errors. In addition, the program demonstrates techniques nurses can incorporate into their care practice in an effort to prevent errors.