Creating an organizational culture for medication safety

Medical and nursing students have traditionally been taught Hippocrates' dictum first do no harm. Unfortunately, unintentional patient harm at the hands of health care professionals has been the focus of recent studies, national investigations, and public attention. In the mid-1990s, several medical incidents that resulted in serious adverse consequences to patients were highly publicized, stimulating the interest and concern of the public and health care professionals regarding the safety of the health care system. The estimated financial cost of medical errors in the United States is approximately $37.6 billion each year, with $17 billion of these costs associated with preventable errors. One third of all medical errors involve medication errors, making these the most common cause of preventable medical errors.