Medical errors may be the third-leading cause of death in the U.S.1 , making patient safety and quality improvement (PSQI) a top priority in today’s health care environment. Waste in U.S. health care has been estimated to cost over $992 billion annually,2 further highlighting the urgent need for all physicians to have PSQI skills. Patient safety and quality improvement are not innate skills; they must be taught. Although management skills are becoming a part of the core curriculum of many specialties, practicing physicians who have completed training have many opportunities to learn about these important topics. The most important PSQI areas for both trainees and physicians in practice include team training and communication, patient safety, analysis of critical events, and quality improvement.
The urgent need to teach practicing physicians PSQI skills has been acknowledged by the American Board of Anesthesiology, which requires board-certified anesthesiologists to obtain patient safety...
