The purpose of this project is to assess the implications of the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System," for rural hospitals to help identify ways in which they can monitor and implement systems to prevent medical errors. Project staff will review the IOM report and the Federal Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC) report to identify issues of particular concern for rural hospitals. These issues will then be discussed via phone interviews with the key staff for the IOM report and QuIC report and representatives from health care purchasers, providers, and regulators across the country knowledgeable about hospital quality of care and medical error issues. Potential issues to be addressed in the working paper include mandatory versus voluntary reporting system, measuring the "true rate" of adverse events, strategies for developing safe practices, and access/safety tradeoffs.

Publications

• Environmental Context of Patient Safety and Medical Errors
  University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 03/2003
  This paper explores the environmental context of patient safety/medical errors with specific interest in rural areas. It reviews patient safety/medical error literature, identifies features of rural healthcare organizations and their environment relating to patient safety issues/medical errors, and discusses error reduction/prevention strategies.