Not all medication errors are created equal. In efforts to improve patient safety, healthcare systems need to give first priority to averting the medication errors with the greatest potential for harm.

For several months in late 2001, The Johns Hopkins Hospital unknowingly used a defective bronchoscope that resulted in 2 deaths and 400 injuries.

In the past, use of monopolar electrosurgery in open surgical procedures involved the risk of external skin injury due to an alternate return path or compromised return electrode.