To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System is a landmark report issued in November 1999 by the U.S. Institute of Medicine that may have resulted in increased awareness of U.S. medical errors.
The report was based upon analysis of multiple studies by a variety of organizations and concluded that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year as a result of preventable medical errors.
The report "brought the issues of medical error and patient safety to the forefront of national concern".
[2] The report has been called "groundbreaking" for suggesting that 2–4% of all deaths in the United States are caused by medical errors.
"To Err Is Human" was the inspiration for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign [1], which in 2006 claimed to have prevented an estimated 124,000 deaths in a period of 18 months through patient-safety initiatives in over 3,000 hospitals.