The Kaiser Family Foundation and the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released an updated survey capturing the public's views and knowledge of medical errors and their experiences with improving the quality of their care.

Since the Institute of Medicine issued a landmark study on medical errors in hospitals seven years ago, hospitals, doctors, health plans and purchasers have made many efforts to improve the quality and coordination of health care. The new survey provides updated responses to key questions about these issues asked in 2000, 2002 and 2004 surveys.

The nationally representative telephone survey of 1,216 adults was conducted August 3-8, 2006. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Foundation staff created and analyzed the survey in collaboration with experts at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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