Improving patient care from the rheumatology perspective

Abstract

In early 2000, the Institute of Medicine of the United States published the results of an investigation carried out on medical errors in hospital patients. The report, entitled “To Err is Human”, concluded that between 44,000 and 98,000 people died annually in U.S. hospitals as a result of errors that occurred in the care process. This figure was even higher than the mortality caused by traffic accidents, breast cancer or HIV at the time. Since then, highly effective interventions have been developed and adopted to prevent these safety-related outcomes for our patients, extending beyond the hospital setting to include outpatient care and, of course, the rheumatology practice.