Defining what constitutes quality care—especially in a large, urban hospital—isn’t easy.
University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers, however, are addressing the nationwide problem with a unique system to reduce medical errors and improve patient care in local hospital emergency departments.

When medical residents work shorter hours, fewer patients are transferred to intensive care and there are not as many interventions by pharmacists to avoid errors in medication, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Annals of Internal Medicine.

When it comes to disclosing medical errors to patients, there is a gap between physicians' attitudes and their real-world experiences admitting such errors, according to a University of Iowa study.

Patient safety incidents at the nation's hospitals rose three percent over the years 2003 to 2005, but the nation's top-performing hospitals had a 40 percent lower rate of medical errors when compared with the poorest-performing hospitals, according to the largest annual study of patient-safety issued today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings company.