TY - JOUR T1 - Safe healthcare: we’re running out of excuses JF - Quality and Safety in Health Care JO - Qual Saf Health Care SP - 418 LP - 418 DO - 10.1136/qshc.2009.038778 VL - 18 IS - 6 AU - David P Stevens Y1 - 2009/12/01 UR - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/18/6/418.abstract N2 - Ten years is a long time. A decade after the US Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine’s call to action, To err is human: Building a safer health system,1 Leape et al remind us that reliably safe healthcare remains an unfulfilled expectation globally.2 Their report offers an expanded prescription for the transformation that is needed among healthcare professionals and institutions. Their report also suggests we’re running out of excuses.Health professionals are not intentionally harmful. However, the prescription from these patient safety leaders—a call for transparency, integrated platforms of care, patient engagement, joy and meaning in work, and medical education reform—seems to collide with inertia that defies explanation.2Fortunately, safety research has accelerated since the original IOM Report.3 Based on a perspective that includes reviewing hundreds of research papers that have been submitted to QSHC in the last five years, I suggest three additional opportunities … ER -