Opinion: It's time for an answer: Is healthcare safer now?

This December marks the 15th anniversary of the landmark report from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine that estimated up to 98,000 Americans die from preventable mistakes in hospitals every year. It is time to know if health care is safer now. Many hospitals in Iowa and elsewhere are working diligently to reduce medication errors, hospital-acquired infections and other causes of harm. Progress has been made, pockets of excellence created and people go home from the hospital alive and well. A wake-up call in 2013 raised the stakes. The Journal of Patient Safety published new estimates that up to 440,000 lives may be lost annually in hospitals due to errors, making health care the third leading cause of preventable mortality in the United States.