Read the following excerpt from The National Acadamies of Newsin a paper discussing the state of healthcare in the book:

Philip Aspden, Julie Wolcott, J. Lyle Bootman, and Linda R. Cronenwett, Editors; Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors; Board on Health Care Services; Institute of Medicine

Medication errors encompass all mistakes involving prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, vitamins, minerals, or herbal supplements. Errors are common at every stage, from prescription and administration of a drug to monitoring of the patient's response, the committee found. It estimated that on average, there is at least one medication error per hospital patient per day, although error rates vary widely across facilities. Not all errors lead to injury or death, but the number of preventable injuries that do occur -- the committee estimated at least 1.5 million each year -- is sobering, the report says. Studies indicate that 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals. Another 800,000 occur in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 occur just among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics. The committee noted that these are likely underestimates. There is insufficient data to determine accurately all the costs associated with medication errors. The conservative estimate of 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries in hospitals will result in at least $3.5 billion in extra medical costs this year, the committee calculated. A study of outpatient clinics found that medication-related injuries there resulted in roughly $887 million in extra medical costs in 2000 -- and the study looked only at injuries experienced by Medicare recipients, a subset of clinic visitors. None of these figures take into account lost wages and productivity or other costs.

An update on this topic from Fall of 2019

BYKATHLEEN SUTCLIFFE on NOVEMBER 5, 2019

Kathleen Sutcliffe is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the co-author of a forthcoming bookStill Not Safe: Patient Safety and the Middle-Managing of American Medicine(Oxford University Press).

Twenty years ago this fall, theInstitute of Medicinean U.S.-based independent, nongovernmental organization widely regarded as an authority at the intersection of medicine and societyreleased a report titled "To Err Is Human." It announced that up to 98,000 Americans were dying each year frommedical errors.

Official and popular reaction was swift. Congress mandated the monitoring of progress in efforts to prevent patient harm, and the health care industry set grand goals, such as reducing medical errors by 50% within five years. News outlets reported on the proceedings closely. A remedy for a longstanding problem seemed in sight.

Yet, in 2019, medical errors are about as prevalent as in 1999. "To Err Is Human" was an uneasy read; so is a September 2019report on patient safety from the World Health Organization. Among WHO's findings: Globally, hospital-acquired infections afflict about 10% of hospitalized patients. Medical errors harm some 40% of patients in primary and outpatient care. Diagnostic and medication errors hurt millions, and cost billions of dollars every year.

So, two decades in, why is this still a chronic problem in health care?

do a paragraph describing your thoughts about this information and what you have learned about dosages.