A new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests that medical errors is now the third leading cause of death in the United States. The study raises some critical issues for healthcare providers and policymakers. This isn't the first report to call attention to this critical issue. The Institute of Medicine in 1999 issued its landmark report - To Err is Human - which put a bright light on the problem of medical errors.

To be sure, a lot of progress has been made since 1999, but there are still some significant challenges. Here's part a statement issued today by CHIME Board Chair Marc Probst and CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell:

"The Johns Hopkins Medicine study raises serious concerns about patient safety in the nation’s hospitals. One death due to a medical error is too many. Improving quality of care and patient safety is the top priority for College of Healthcare Information Management Executive (CHIME) members. First and foremost is making sure that patients are properly identified when they walk into a hospital, clinic or doctor’s office. Unfortunately, the lack of a national patient identification system results in some patients being misidentified. The safety implications of that are immense. According to a 2012 survey, 20 percent of CHIME members could attribute at least one adverse medical event to patient identification or matching mistakes. CHIME has taken the bold step of trying to solve this problem once and for all. The CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust’s National Patient ID Challenge — a $1 million crowdsourcing competition — aims to find a viable and scalable solution to ensure accurate patient identification 100 percent of the time. Already, 345 innovators from 39 countries have registered for the challenge and 113 entered the first phase of the competition. CHIME will award the $1 million grand prize to the winning developer next February."

Addressing patient identification won't cure all of the safety woes facing the industry, but it will be a significant milestone in creating a safer environment for patients.