The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the IHI Lucian Leape Institute (LLI) are deeply saddened by the passing of Lucian Leape, MD.
A giant in health care, Dr. Leape is widely considered the parent of the modern patient safety movement. His participation in the landmark Harvard Medical Practice Study in the 1980s, and the subsequent publication of its findings in 1991, helped establish the field of patient safety. He and his colleagues pulled back the curtain on the true scope of adverse events and preventable error in health care. Dr. Leape devoted four decades of his life and career to raising awareness of the magnitude of preventable medical harm, and more importantly, building communities and mechanisms for action to eliminate harm to patients and the workforce.
Dr. Leape also left his mark as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Quality of Health Care in America Committee, which published the seminal works in the patient safety movement, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001). He was the founding chairman of the LLI, which was formed in 2007 by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF, which merged with IHI in 2017) to provide a strategic vision for improving patient safety. He was an active member of the think tank bearing his name through the remainder of his life.
Lucian Leape was both a literal and figurative tower of courage and transparency who challenged health care’s status quo acceptance that harm to patients was an acceptable, collateral consequence of health care. He eschewed the notion that safety should primarily depend on, or be blamed on, individuals who provide direct patient care. Instead, under his direction, the LLI pursued five transforming, yet under addressed system-level concepts deemed essential for safety including medical education reform, accelerating care integration, workforce safety and joy and meaning in work, partnering with patients, and transparency.
Lucian’s spirit and influence live on in the continued work of the LLI, IHI, and the countless individuals and institutions that relentlessly pursue safe, person-centered care delivered in psychologically safe, fair and just, and respectful environments. His groundbreaking insights illuminated pathways to healing broken systems, harvesting the best of leaders and the workforce, and ensuring the centeredness of patients first amid the complexity of health care. While we mourn the loss of a remarkable mentor, colleague, and friend, we celebrate the gift of his life and career. His indelible influence will continue to shape our commitment to patient safety for generations.