title: Patient safety, elephants, chickens, and mosquitoes.
abstract: Five years after the landmark report by the Institute of Medicine, To Err is Human (2000), many of us still grapple with making care safer for patients. This article broadly describes how patient safety fits into the picture of quality, concepts in patient safety, and practical safety processes you can implement today.
authors.affiliation: William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beauregard
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D015984:Causality; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010355:Patient Identification Systems; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology