Insights from the Armstrong Institute
Health care has been thinking about medical errors for nearly 20 years, starting with the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report “To Err is Human.” This and other work across the country have correctly shed light upon such medical errors as amputation of the wrong limb, inpatient adverse drug events and hospital-acquired infections, and we have(...)
Last year, Sarah Andryauskas, then a new nurse in our emergency department, was caring for a patient with diabetes who had trouble maintaining healthy blood glucose levels. His disease had contributed to several hospital visits over the preceding months and years. As health care providers, it’s tempting to attribute such repeat visits to patient noncompliance.(...)