The Response of the U.S. Health Care System to the Institute of Medicine's Report on Medical Errors

The emphasis on improvement of the quality of health care in the United States has been ongoing for decades. With the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s report in 1999 on the high occurrence of medical errors, health care organizations realized the depth of the issue. The goal of this study was to analyze the overall response of the U.S. health care system to the report on medical errors and assess whether improvements in patient safety have been initiated. To achieve the goal, the researcher conducted a content analysis of textual materials. The paper introduces the Systems Theory and a quality improvement framework, FOCUS PDCA, and the findings are evaluated on how they relate to the theory and continuous quality improvement method. The textual materials concluded that improvements have been attempted throughout the country to help reduce the number of preventable deaths due to medical errors. The content analysis indicates gaps in how the issue is currently being handled and the necessity for efforts to continue to help resolve medical errors. Recommendations including standardization, quality analysis, and a mandatory reporting system to help decrease the prevalence of errors that impact many Americans.