How to reduce medical errors

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine—an organization regarded as an authority at the intersection of medicine and society—published a report, “To Err Is Human,” which found that up to 98,000 Americans were dying annually from medical errors. Twenty years later, deadly health care mistakes may be just as prevalent.

Official and popular reaction to the 1999 paper was swift. Congress mandated the monitoring of progress in efforts to prevent patient harm, and the health care industry aspired to grand goals, like the report’s recommendation of