The cost of patient safety.

To ensure patient safety, it costs an organization time, money, and commitment. The clinical laboratory may promote patient safety or may contribute to medical error. Laboratory errors put a patient at risk at any point along the path of workflow. The cost of an initiative in patient safety may be considered from four perspectives: compliance, feasibility, present risk, and financial. Three examples are offered to illustrate the use of these approaches. Most patient-safety strategies in laboratory medicine are not expensive. They are affordable with a structured outlay of existing resources and a willingness to follow defined work practices without exception. More extensive projects, especially those that cross jurisdictional lines within an organization, do require comprehensive project management. Management ofboth kinds of initiatives is addressed by NCCLS' documents on quality practice.