In 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report about medical errors in hospitals. This was one of the most closely followed health policy news stories that year. More than half of the public (51%) said they followed the story closely (26% reported following this story very closely; 25% said they followed it fairly closely). Four in ten (42%) knew that the report indicated that medical errors are a serious problem, many resulting in a large number of preventable deaths. However, another 43% didn’t know enough to say what the report was about, and 12% thought the news said it was a small problem.