Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety Relaunches to Improve Patient Safety

Named for a Boston Globe reporter who died after a chemotherapy dosing error 20 years ago, Massachusetts’s Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction has once again opened its doors (the center closed in 2009 due to a lack of funding after operating for five years) with a revitalized mission to reduce medical errors and increase patient safety.

Despite measureable patient safety improvements since Lehman’s death in 1994, preventable harm through medical errors remains a critical issue, and major gaps exist in patient safety efforts around the country.

According to the Journal of Patient Safety, up to 400,000 deaths each year in the United States are associated with preventable healthcare mistakes (James, 2013). The Lehman Center reports that medical errors are the “third-leading cause of death in the country, behind only heart disease and cancer.”

Today, the center is working to “foster a statewide program of research, data analysis, and dissemination of best practices that engages healthcare agencies, healthcare providers, and consumers in initiatives that will reduce medical error and enhance patient safety.”

Reference

James, J. T. (2013, September). A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. Journal of Patient Safety, 9(3), 122–128.