Clinicians often use more health care resources than patients really need — for example, ordering unnecessary tests. Overuse of the health care system drives costs up without improving patients’ health. Why does it happen, then? In the US, many clinicians fear they’ll be hit with a malpractice lawsuit if they skip a test or treatment. So how can providers balance their fears of a lawsuit with the need to keep costs down? Dr. Neel Shah, founder of Costs of Care, shares his view in a new video short.

A new government report has found that as many as a third of patients in rehab hospitals are harmed as part of their care, from medication errors, bedsores, infections, or other harm. Researchers reviewed medical records with a methodology based on IHI’s Global Trigger Tool to identify probable incidents of harm. “We're fooling ourselves if we say we have made improvement,” says Dr. David Classen, an author of the study. “If the first rule of health care is ‘Do no harm,’ then we’re failing.” Learn more about the prevalence of medical error in PS 100: Introduction to Patient Safety.