Primum non nocere

Abstract

As a follow up to the "To Err is Human Report," in 2001, the Institute of Medicine described six overall "aims for improvement" in healthcare: care that is patient centered, efficient, timely, equitable, effective and safe. While simple enough, as a practitioner of hospital medicine, one quickly realizes that the realities of universally achieving these goals can be, at the very least, challenging. Patient safety has played an increasingly prominent role in many hospitals over the past 25 years and many important strides have been made in this area.