Panel tackles issue with recommendations.

• Position: Patient Safety - National Patient Safety Foundation - Brief article

Fifteen years after the Institute of Medicine brought attention to the issue of medical errors and adverse events, patient safety concerns remain a serious public health issue that must be tackled with a more pervasive response, insists a report released by the National Patient Safety Foundation, Boston, Mass., which calls for the establishment of a total systems approach and a culture of safety.

"The field of patient safety has not achieved enough, despite definite progress having been made," asserts Tejal K. Gandhi, president and CEO of NPSF. "Health care is still not nearly as safe as it can and should be."

Adds Kaveh G. Shojania, co-chair of the NPSF panel, director of the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto, Canada, and editor-in-chief of the journal BMJ Quality & Safety. "Fifteen years ago, patient safety represented a new endeavor for health care-focusing on how to prevent avoidable harm while delivering routine care.

"Today, interest has shifted toward value, patient-centered care, and other domains of quality. These are also...