The Institute of Medicine's report, issued December 1999, entitled "To Err
is Human; Building a Safer System," describes the magnitude of the problem
of errors in medicine and carts an agenda for improving patient safety. The
essential features include establishing patient safety as a national focus
, identifying and learning from errors, passing legislation to protect repo
rting, and adopting the patient safety sciences. The presidential report of
February 2000, issued by the Quality Interagency Task Force (QuIC), formul
ates a federal government response across all federal agencies. The challen
ges and opportunities facing the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) Program and
the ESRD Network Organizations include taking a leadership role, raising a
wareness, conducting educational programs, and facilitating making errors v
isible, for the purposes of learning and improvement. (C) 2000 by the Natio
nal Kidney Foundation, Inc.