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To Err Is Human, But This Is Something Else

By John Ratkowitz

In November 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, published a study declaring that a threshold improvement in the quality of health care was urgently needed because medical negligence committed in hospitals in the United States was killing more people annually than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS. Kohn LT, et al., To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, National Academy Press pg. 26 (1999). (Hereafter “To Err Is Human”). The impact of that study, and its “jarring” analogy that the annual number of deaths from hospital negligence would be equal to the downing of a jumbo jet every single day, “galvanized the public and health professionals and led to congressional hearings, media exposes, and millions of anxious patients.” Robert M. Wachter, M.D., The End of the Beginning: Patient Safety Five Years After “To Err Is Human,” W4 Health Aff. (Millwood) Web Exclusives 534 (2004). (Hereafter “The End of the Beginning”).

It is not an overstatement to say that as a result of the IOM study, in 1999 the United States came to the realization that medical mistakes were a problem of epidemic proportions. Id.

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