The American Diabetes Association Should Be a Leader in Reducing Medication Errors

The 1999 publication of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) review of medical errors, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System (1), along with the publication of Michael Cohen’s book, Medical Errors (2), highlighted the impact that medical errors have on the U.S. health care system and the potential for high morbidity and possible fatal outcome for the individual patient (7,000+ deaths per year from medication errors). Throughout the country, health care providers, hospitals, and delivery systems are making elimination of medication-related errors a top priority, with strong support from major employers and …