Eleven years ago today, the Institute of Medicine released To Err Is Human, a much-discussed report that launched the modern patient-safety movement. Just the other day, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine reminded us of how far we still have to go to protect patients from medical errors.
To commemorate the anniversary of To Err Is Human, Health Affairs today adds a group of Medical Errors podcasts to its free collection of Narrative Matters essays on iTunes U.
The new podcasts are:
- “Incidental Illness” by Danielle Ofri. The author recalls a few near- misses during her first encounters in the real world of post-residency medicine. The essay originally appeared in the July/August 2004 edition of Health Affairs.
- A more recently written account by Ofri, appearing in the August 2010 edition of Health Affairs, is titled, “Ashamed To Admit It: Owning Up To Medical Error.” In it Ofri addresses the role of disclosure and apology among her professional peers.
- “Casey’s Legacy” by W. Richard Boyte. While trying to save a child’s life, a doctor makes a judgment error and the operation fails. Boyte’s essay was published in the March/April 2001 edition of Health Affairs.
These podcasts are part of the collection of Narrative Matters essays on iTunes. The newest Narrative Matters essay, “Cruel Calculus: Why Saving Premature Babies Is Better Business Than Helping Them Thrive,” appears in the November edition of Health Affairs.
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