Yearly, approximately 100,000 patients die of health care–associated infections, about another 100,000 die from other preventable errors, and "tens of thousands more die of diagnostic errors or failure to receive recommended therapies."1-3

To generalize, it is unfortunate that physicians often are "overconfident about the quality of care they provide, believing things will go right rather than wrong, assuming they provide higher-quality care than the evidence suggests, and thinking they alone have sufficient knowledge and skills to provide care."

Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD. "Learning Accountability for Patient Outcomes." JAMA. 2010;304(2):204-205. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.979.

REFERENCES 1-3

1. Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 1999.
2. McGlynn EA, Asch SM, Adams J; et al. The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States. N Engl J Med. 2003;348(26):2635-2645. [Free Full Text]
3. Klevens RM, Edwards JR, Richards CL Jr; et al. Estimating health care-associated infections and deaths in US hospitals, 2002. Public Health Rep. 2007;122(2):160-166. [Web of Science; Pub Med]