TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Chapter 1. The Nature and Frequency of Medical Errors and Adverse Events A1 - Wachter, Robert M. Y1 - 2012 N1 - T2 - Understanding Patient Safety, 2e AB - Although Hippocrates said “first, do no harm” over 2000 years ago and many hospitals have long hosted conferences to discuss errors (Morbidity and Mortality, or “M&M,” conferences), until recently medical errors were considered an inevitable by-product of modern medicine or the unfortunate detritus of bad providers. This began to change in late 1999, with the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) publication of To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System.1 This report, which estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year from medical mistakes, generated tremendous public and media attention, and set the stage for unprecedented efforts to improve patient safety. Of course, these seminal works built on a rich tapestry of inquiry and leadership in the field of patient safety (Appendix III), familiar to a small group of devotees but generally unknown to mainstream providers, administrators, policymakers, and patients. SN - PB - The McGraw-Hill Companies CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/19 UR - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=56250001 ER -