Ten years later: Look to nurses as champions of patient safety

In a column for Kaiser Health News, Mary Naylor and Mark Pauly write: "Ten years ago this month, the Institute of Medicine shattered a widely held perception that American health care was safe.

IOM's finding that as many as 98,000 patients die each year in hospitals from medical errors launched an aggressive patient safety movement that continues today. But the report also cast a spotlight on the role of the nurse in keeping patients safe, a role that will become even more important under the ongoing effort to reform the health care system" (12/10). Read entire column.