The Four Greatest Weaknesses in the American Healthcare System Fueling Preventable Harm
Every clinician swore an oath to “do no harm,” and yet, while unintentional, preventable harm is inflicted on patients every day in healthcare.
For decades, valiant efforts have been underway to improve patient and workforce safety. Some healthcare providers have made significant progress – several of which came to the forefront a few weeks ago when ECRI joined healthcare leaders from across the U.S. to lead a dialogue at the White House Healthcare Safety Forum. ECRI was honored to moderate a panel that showcased some of the proven interventions and principles that are foundational to highly successful safety efforts. These successes offer valuable lessons that can be scaled to have a broader impact across the healthcare industry.
Despite ongoing efforts, the hard truth remains: we have yet to make meaningful progress in advancing healthcare safety on a national scale. Decades after the watershed To Err Is Human report published in 1999, we still see alarming rates of preventable harm. Adverse events were identified in nearly one in four patient admissions, and approximately a quarter of the adverse events were preventable, when researchers revisited the 1999 study last year.¹