Patient safety and medical errors have received a great deal of attention since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” in November of 1999. The report stated that as many as 98,000 patients die as a result of medical errors in hospitals each year. Otolaryngology practices could be affected by national legislative efforts focused on improving healthcare quality and patient safety in the future.  Read on to learn more... 

• Quality and Safety in a Complex World:  Why Systems Science Matters to Otolaryngologists
  Roberson DW, Kentala E, Healy GB. Laryngoscope. 2004 Oct; 114 (10): 1810-4.
• Classification and Consequences of Errors in Otolaryngology
  Shah RK, Kentala E, Healy GB, Roberson DW. Laryngoscope. 2004 Aug; 114 (8): 1322-35.
• Otolaryngologists Responses to Error and Adverse Events
  Lander LI, Connor JA, Shah RK, Kentala E, Healy GB, Roberson DW. Laryngoscope. 2006 Jul; 116 (7): 1114-1120.
• Errors in Facial Nerve Surgery
  New Horizons in Facial Nerve Research and Facial Expression, pp. 317-322 edited by N. Yanagihara and S. Murakami
  Proceedings of the VIIIth International Symposium on the Facial Nerve, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan, April 13-18, 1997
  ©1998 Kugler Publications, The Hague, The Netherlands
• Errors in Otology
  Kartush JM: Errors in Otology. ENT Journal, 75: 710-714 1996