Using Health Information Technology to Enhance a Culture of Safety

Abstract

It was astonishing to learn that as many as 98,000 Americans die annually in hospitals due to preventable medical errors. This number is expected to increase as many of the medical care occur in ambulatory settings outside hospitals. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), had raised sufficient interest to a degree that patient safety is now recognized as a national health care issue. Therefore, a focus should be aimed at reducing medical errors and system failures by collecting and analyzing data to gain sufficient information, and bring attention to what the healthcare system is lacking