To Err Is Human: A Patient Safety Documentary

We need to alert you to a Public Health Emergency, but it doesn’t involve that person sniffling next to you, smoking, or your weight. It involves the healthcare system itself. Medical mistakes rank as the third leading cause of death in the U.S., just behind heart disease and cancer. Add nonlethal errors with potentially debilitating results and you have an industry in crisis. But this is not a documentary of horrors. It is one of hope. To Err Is Human takes a fearless look at the systemic reasons that have allowed medical errors to continue at such an alarming rate. From there it turns its uncompromising focus to the ways in which the healthcare system can improve and the ways it already has. Looking for models outside healthcare, such as aviation and nuclear power, this film charts a hopeful path forward, one where both caregiver and patient work together. (Cleveland International Film Festival)