While the management of critically ill patients has traditionally been an undeveloped area of medicine, recent advances in drugs, surgical techniques, and medical equipment now allow patients to survive illnesses and disorders that previously were uniformly fatal. Unfortunately, the knowledge and techniques that are required to do this are not traditionally taught in medical school. Thus, medical errors in this population group are not uncommon and are more likely to have adverse, often fatal, consequences.

In 2001, physicians responsible for the care of the critically ill were...