In October 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety (World Alliance) to raise awareness and political commitment to improve the safety of care and to facilitate the development of patient safety policy and practice in all WHO member states.

Clinical laboratory tests and anatomic pathology diagnoses affect the vast majority of treatment decisions made by clinical physicians in nearly every medical discipline, impacting nearly every person seeking medical care.

No country in the world spends more money on healthcare than the U.S. Surpassing 15% of our GDP, we believe our spending on healthcare buys us the most advanced technology and best trained physicians while delivering miraculous outcomes.

Pressure ulcers or PrUs represent a serious problem for patients within the acute care setting, and a significant care management challenge for clinicians. Also known as bed sores, pressure ulcers…

Sharon Denning, M.S., R.N., C.N.A., is the director of the HealthPartners Simulation Center. In this interview, she discusses her decision to make the transition from her nursing career to become the Center’s director, shares her views on…

Patient safety has always been a serious matter in healthcare. After all, it is called health “care” for a reason. What has changed over the past few years is the degree of scrutiny applied to clinical organizations regarding patient safety records and the public’s demand for improvement.

Around 400 B.C., Hippocrates penned his famous oath binding himself to an unwavering commitment to his patients’ well-being. Throughout history and today, medical institutions have adopted the Oath of Hippocrates as proclamation of their dedication to compassionate and skilled patient care.

Integrity refers to a state of being or level of action where there is soundness — where correctness and consistency are maintained in behavior as well as data. Characterized both as the internal accuracy and consistency of a process, integrity serves as the disposition and foundation that drives our choices and actions.

At first glance, you may have wondered why we have an airplane on the cover of this issue. I hope by now you’ve seen that we have an article by Dr. Kirk Harmon on how lessons from aviation safety may be applied to medicine; thus the airplane.

U.S. aphorist Mason Cooley said, “Theory can leave questions unanswered, but practice has to come up with something.” Nowhere does this apply better than the increasingly prevalent practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM).