Patient safety ratings have improved in the last 10 years

Patient safety improvements in the last 10 years received a grade of B-minus, according to a medical author and editor of two federal government safety web sites writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Hospitals have improved accreditation, regulation, and error reporting, but health information technology has lagged behind, says Robert Wachter, professor and associate chair in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine released "To Err Is Human," a report that launched the modern patient-safety movement.