Perhaps tens of thousands of Americans are killed every year by preventable medical errors. Today, a bipartisan group of U-S Senators announced the introduction of legislation that aims to drastically cut down on the number of deadly mistakes made in health care facilities.Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is co-sponsor of the bill which would set up a medical safety program. It’d also require the reporting of deaths & serious injuries, identify their causes, and take steps to prevent future errors. Grassley says it’ll zero in on the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He says by reducing errors for older Americans, they’ll make an impact on people of all ages.Iowa has more citizens over the age of 85 than any other state. Iowa also has the third-highest percentage of retired persons among the 50 states. Grassley says the bill was inspired, in part, by a study that came out last November from the Institute of Medicine.The report found somewhere between 44- and 98-thousand Americans die from preventable medical errors every year. The bill is nicknamed SAFE, for Stop All Frequent Errors.
