I just happened upon an excellent website (http://www.neverevents.org/), promoting the value of 11 years of “Never Events” as establishing safer practices in our hospitals. This site is authored by a physician and notes that another physician, Ken Kizer, MD, former CEO of the non-profit, National Quality Forum (NQF), first introduced this term in 2001. 

Since then, insurance companies, health organizations and later, the U.S. government, came on board – to support the notion that failing to protect the consumer public from preventable errors has devastating consequences for this nation. Topping the list on this site are preventable pressure ulcers.