Since the 1999 release of the To Err is Human report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that claimed medical errors result in 44,000 to 98,000 deaths and contribute to $17 billion to 29 billion in excess healthcare expenditure each year, hospitals have faced mounting scrutiny of their patient safety practices. More recently, in July 2006, another IOM report highlighted that medication errors harm or kills 1.5 million patients every year, leading to more than $3.5 billion in extra healthcare expenses at hospitals to treat the error-related injuries. Beyond the hard dollars, however, it is clear that there are other costs which over the long run are incalculable. Reputation damage alone can quickly cancel out the millions of marketing dollars each institution invests to attract patients, and in the increasingly competitive marketplace the damage can be irreversible. As a result, chief financial officers and chief information officers are being inundated with requests for significant investments in technologies that offer improvement in safety.

This Audio Webcast will look at the use of safety and quality care metrics, such as those computed from data on adverse events and medical errors. This data has been successfully used by leading institutions to reduce medical errors by offering them keen insight into root causes, thereby identifying key opportunities for improvement. You will also learn how this data-driven infrastructure responds to the looming pay-for-performance programs being instituted and which will have a significant impact on organization's bottom line.