After 10 Years of Safety Testing of Operational EHRs What Have We Learned?

David Classen, MD, CMIO, Pascal Metrics, and Professor of Medicine, University of Utah. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine report “To Err is Human” revealed that 98,000 people die every year due to medical errors. The Leapfrog Group founders partnered with the Business Roundtable, leading researchers and academics, and top quality and patient safety experts with a plan to reverse these troubling trends, using transparency in reporting to drive giant leaps forward in safety and quality of care. The Leapfrog Hospital Survey was begun in 2001 with an initial focus on CPOE, staffing in the ICU, and sufficient surgical volumes; it now includes additional measures critical to purchasers and consumers, including infection rates, Cesarean section rates, and medication safety. Dr. Classen reviews the data and insights gleaned from 10 years of test results using the Leapfrog CPOE tool, which has grown in use to over 2000 hospitals in 2017.