Findings of the report in relation to whether or not we have improved our safety record in the field of healthcare
The problem concerning medical errors was issued to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in November 1999. The report showed that these errors killed about 98,000 people each year the worst part is the United States health care system did not do much to prevent the mistakes (Donaldson, Corrigan & Kohn, 2000). In the past decade, efforts to reduce medical errors have been few, and there is the feeling that these errors have continued to increase with time. Medical errors have been ranked eighth as top killers in the United States (Donaldson et al., 2000). Jewell & McGiffert, (2009) noted that many citizens in the United States die due to medical errors which could have been easily prevented.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated that specific initiatives need to be taken which will reduce medical errors for less than a percentage of 50 in the next five years (Donaldson et al., 2000). The IOM gave recommendations to the government which they thought that when applied, they would reduce deaths caused by medical errors. There were seven hearings based on the proposition provided by IOM. After three months, the IOM filed five federal bills concerning medical mistakes. Therefore, the agency in charge of Health issues was funded with an aim to improve the safety in the field of healthcare. However, in 2004, hopes for a 50%reduction in medical errors by the IOM faded since their bills were not passed therefore making the conditions surrounding health safety to remain the same (Jewell &McGiffert, 2009).
In 1999, the IOM stated, “there is no cohesive effort to improve health safety.” Findings of the report issued by the IOM stressed that the problem does not lie to individual errors made by health practitioners. Therefore, the report showed that failure was due to lack of monitoring the errors by the medical department (Jewell &McGiffert, 2009). The field of healthcare has not adequately improved since the patient safety indicators only show surgical errors. Therefore, less accessible errors are difficult to get and are not included in the statistics (Donaldson et al., 2000). This makes it difficult for the healthcare facility to prevent them.
According to Swankin, LeBuhn& Morrison, (2006), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of United States should ensure health safety to patients and other citizens by monitoring drug packaging and labeling since some drugs have similar names. Some pharmacists and doctors may not be qualified to sell drugs, therefore, increasing medical errors in medical facilities (Swankin et al., 2006). Most of the hospitals in the United States do not report individuals who are responsible for the errors, and therefore, chances of repeating these errors in future are high. The IOM recommended that the harmful errors should be reported to enable the public to hold specific local healthcare responsible since this allows them to take caution and improve their medication (Jewell & McGiffert, 2009).
Costs that medical errors inflict on the healthcare system and identify training and workforce issues that perpetuate medical mishaps
Medical errors have been involved in the deaths of more than a million people in the last ten years. Therefore, this affects the economy of United States with the workforce being reduced. The Institute of Medicine stated that the medical errors cost the government of United States 17 to 29 billion dollars a year (Donaldson et al., 2000). The institution called for changes to be made in health departments to reduce these costs and improve patient safety. The government issued 50 million dollars to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) which was to be used to improve health safety for patients. Jewell &McGiffert, (2009) stated that there are more than 1.5 million preventable medical errors committed in hospitals in the United States each year. Therefore, it leads to a loss of 3.5 billion dollars in the hospitals due to medication errors.
Drug confusion is the main reason for medical errors in healthcare departments. The mistakes include medicine with similar labels which when taken, may lead to death (Swankin et al., 2006).In the United States, once the doctors or health practitioners receive their medical licenses, their competency is not rechecked (Swankin et al., 2006). Thus, this may lead to medical mishaps in future since the professionals may become incompetent with time since they do not have the modern medical knowledge. These professionals may suffer from drug addiction alcoholism and other conditions which may lead to memory loss thus making their training to decline (Berntsen, 2004).
Moreover, the workforce is reduced in hospitals if some professionals are considered as incompetent for treating patients. The Medical Education Reform department held discussions on how to change the medical education sector to ensure that the health practitioners in healthcare facilities are competent(Donaldson et al., 2000).The most significant healthcare purchaser in the United States stopped giving its services and paying for preventable conditions in the hospital which include hospital-acquired infections and other medical errors. Therefore, payment costs are increased for the patients making the hospitals to take initiatives on reducing the medical errors (Jewell &McGiffert, 2009).

References
Berntsen, K. J. (2004). The patient’s guide to preventing medical errors. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Donaldson, M. S., Corrigan, J. M., & Kohn, L. T. (Eds.). (2000). To err is human: building a safer health system (Vol. 6). National Academies Press.
Jewell, K., &McGiffert, L. (2009). To err is human, to delay is deadly: ten years later, a million lives lost, billions of dollars wasted. Consumers Union.
Swankin, D., LeBuhn, R. A., & Morrison, R. (2006). Implementing continuing competency requirements for health care practitioners. AARP, Public Policy Institute.