Why Improve Quality Care and Patient Safety Outside Hospital Walls?
Hospitals and clinics are places where patients are examined and treated. It is within these walls that many patients receive unexpected outcomes created by unsafe conditions or unskilled practitioners. Rarely have institutional providers or practitioners extended their responsibility for patient safety beyond the facilities’ walls. Typically, a healthcare provider is insured against malpractice and general liability for actions in which they are directly responsible. However, does this system offer the best quality care and safety to patients and the community? The often published and heralded Institute of Medicine Study estimates that at least 96,000 patients die unnecessarily each year in U.S.hospitals, yet masks a quiet crisis-the equally unnecessary deaths every year of hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering from chronic conditions that could have been prevented or better managed. Viewing patient safety outside healthcare facility walls will require health organizations to r
