Editorial: Plan may reduce medical mistakes

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 9:07 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is embarking on a three-year program to reduce medical errors, trying to replicate the system that encourages pilots to report their own aviation mistakes. As is the case with pilots, anonymity will be assured for the VA's doctors and nurses, so they won't fear punishment for admitting they made a mistake. This is controversial, but sharing with others what went wrong can prevent errors from happening again.

It's estimated that as many as 98,000 Americans die every year from medical mistakes. The current situation obviously isn't producing error-free medicine, so it is promising to see a federal agency, such as the VA, take the lead.

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