400,000 deaths per year?

That's what one study estimated with regard to preventable harm in hospitals. Another study claims that patients are no better protected now than they were 15 years ago. A third concludes that preventable patient harm is the third-leading cause of death in America. Other studies show that medication errors, adverse drug events and injuries due to drugs occur in up to 25 percent of patients within 30 days of being prescribed a drug.

In my business days one of the 'cliches' I felt was reality was: you can't manage if you don't measure. That appears to be the basic problem in reducing the number of deaths that are preventable. Providers and public health agencies still are not accurately measuring the harm.