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June 15, 2022 Weekly Issue
PSNet highlights the latest patient safety literature, news, and expert commentary, including Weekly Updates, WebM&M, and Perspectives on Safety. The current issue highlights what's new this week in patient safety literature, news, conferences, reports, and more. Past issues of the PSNet Weekly Update are available to browse. WebM&M presents current and past monthly issues of Cases & Commentaries and Perspectives on Safety.
This Week’s Featured Articles
Baim-Lance A, Ferreira KB, Cohen HJ, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2023;38:399-405.
When serious adverse events such as death are reported, they are typically associated with poor patient safety. In some fields of care, however, such as palliative care, deaths are expected and not necessarily an indicator of poor quality. This commentary describes how serious and non-serious adverse events (SAEs/AEs) are currently defined and reported, the associated challenges, and proposes a new approach to reporting SAE/AE in clinical trials. A decision-tree to determine SAE/AE reporting based on the new proposed approach is presented.
Mortensen M, Naustdal KI, Uibu E, et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2022;11:e001751.
A 2011 systematic review identified nine tools to assess patient safety competence in nurses. This review identified multiple instruments released since that review; the most frequently used was the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS). The authors suggest future research should consider including ethics in patient safety and responsiveness to change over time.
Singh M, Collins L, Farrington R, et al. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022;9:184-194.
Clinical reasoning is an essential component of diagnostic safety. This paper describes the development of a new curriculum to improve clinical reasoning skills and processes in medical students. The curriculum uses several educational strategies (e.g., classroom teaching, simulation training, patient encounters) during pre-clerkship and clerkship to improve clinical reasoning skills across several domains (theory, patient assessment, diagnosis, and shared decision-making).
Serou N, Slight RD, Husband AK, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:358-364.
Operating rooms are high-risk healthcare settings. This study reviewed serious surgical incidents occurring at large teaching hospitals in one National Health Service (NHS) trust. The authors outline several possible contributing factors (i.e., equipment and resource factors, team factors, work environment factors, and organizational and management factors) discuss recommendations for safer care.
Phadke NA, Wickner PG, Wang L, et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022;10:1844-1855.e3.
Patient exposure to allergens healthcare settings, such as latex or certain medications, can lead to adverse outcomes. Based on data from an incident reporting system, researchers in this study developed a system for classifying allergy-related safety events. Classification categories include: (1) incomplete or inaccurate EHR documentation, (2) human factors, such as overridden allergy alerts, (3) alert limitation or malfunction, (4) data exchange and interoperability failures, and (5) issues with EHR system default options. This classification system can be used to support improvements at the individual, team, and systems levels.
Fontil V, Khoong EC, Lyles C, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2022;48:395-402.
Missed or delayed diagnosis in primary care may result in serious complications for patients. This prospective study followed adults presenting to primary care with new or unresolved symptoms for 12 months. 32% of patients received a diagnosis within one month; most of the rest still did not have a diagnosis at 12 months (50%). The authors suggest interventions aimed at improving diagnosis should be system-based, not specific to a single medical issue or population.
Peivandi S, Ahmadian L, Farokhzadian J, et al. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2022;22:96.
Speech recognition software is a potential strategy to reduce documentation burden and burnout. This study compared the accuracy handwritten nursing notes versus online and offline speech recognition software. Findings indicate that the speech recognition software was accurate but created more errors than handwritten notes.
Guzek R, Goodbody CM, Jia L, et al. J Pediatr Orthop. 2022;42:393-399.
Research has demonstrated inequitable treatment of racially minoritized patients resulting in poorer health outcomes. This study aimed to determine if implicit racial bias impacts pediatric orthopedic surgeons’ clinical decision making. While pediatric orthopedic surgeons showed stronger pro-white implicit bias compared to the US general population (29% vs. 19%), the bias did not appear to affect decision making in clinical vignettes.
Ong N, Mimmo L, Barnett D, et al. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2022;64:1359-1365.
Patients with intellectual disabilities may be at higher risk for patient safety events. In this study, researchers qualitatively analyzed hospital incident reporting data and identified incidents categories disproportionately experienced by children with intellectual disabilities. These incident categories included medication-intravenous fluid issues, communication failures, clinical deterioration, and care issues identified by parents.
Hindmarsh J, Holden K. Int J Med Inform. 2022;163:104777.
Computerized provider order entry has become standard practice for most medication ordering. This article reports on the safety and efficiency of ordering mixed-drug infusions before and after implementation of electronic prescribing. After implementation, rates of prescription errors, time to process discharge orders, and time between prescription and administration all decreased.
Salema N-E, Bell BG, Marsden K, et al. BJGP Open. 2022;6:BJGPO.2021.0231.
Medication prescribing errors are common, particularly during medical training. This retrospective review of prescriptions from ten general practitioners in training in the United Kingdom identified a high rate of prescribing errors (8.9% of prescriptions reviewed) and suboptimal prescribing (35%).
Abdelmalak BB, Adhami T, Simmons W, et al. Anesth Analg. 2022;135:198-208.
A 2009 CMS Condition of Participation (CoP) requires that a director of anesthesia services assume overall responsibility for anesthesia administered in the hospital, including procedural sedation provided by nonanesthesiologists. This article reviews the CoP as it relates to procedural sedation, lays out a framework for implementing this role, and describes challenges of implementation in a large health system.
Singh M, Collins L, Farrington R, et al. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022;9:184-194.
Clinical reasoning is an essential component of diagnostic safety. This paper describes the development of a new curriculum to improve clinical reasoning skills and processes in medical students. The curriculum uses several educational strategies (e.g., classroom teaching, simulation training, patient encounters) during pre-clerkship and clerkship to improve clinical reasoning skills across several domains (theory, patient assessment, diagnosis, and shared decision-making).
Redelmeier DA, Etchells EE, Najeeb U. J Hosp Med. 2022;17:405-409.
Empowering healthcare workers to speak up about safety concerns is a core tenant of safety culture. This article outlines how social hierarchies and power differentials among healthcare teams can negatively influence speaking up behavior and approaches to mitigating these pitfalls.
Baim-Lance A, Ferreira KB, Cohen HJ, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2023;38:399-405.
When serious adverse events such as death are reported, they are typically associated with poor patient safety. In some fields of care, however, such as palliative care, deaths are expected and not necessarily an indicator of poor quality. This commentary describes how serious and non-serious adverse events (SAEs/AEs) are currently defined and reported, the associated challenges, and proposes a new approach to reporting SAE/AE in clinical trials. A decision-tree to determine SAE/AE reporting based on the new proposed approach is presented.
Bamberger E, Bamberger P. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;31:638-641.
Disruptive behaviors are discouragingly present in health care. This commentary discusses evidence examining the impact of unprofessional behaviors on safety and clinical care. The authors suggest areas of exploration needed to design reduction efforts such as teamwork, the Safety I mindset and targeting of the root influences of impropriety.
Joseph AL, Monkman H, Kushniruk AW, et al. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022;2022:535-539.
Patient portals allow patients and their caregivers to read clinical notes, view test results, and communicate with their provider, with the goal of improving patient safety. This scoping review found limited evidence of improved patient safety with the use of patient portals. Additionally, the authors found multiple naming conventions, such as patient portal, personal health record, and personal medical record.
Schiavo G, Forgerini M, Lucchetta RC, et al. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2022;62:1463-1476.e14.
Potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults can increase the risk of adverse drug events (ADEs). This systematic review assessed increased healthcare costs associated with ADEs related to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) among older adults. Higher costs were due to increases in hospitalizations, health care expenses, and emergency department visits. Costs were higher among patients with more than one PIM, patients older than 75 years of age, patients with dementia, and patients with other drug interactions.
Mortensen M, Naustdal KI, Uibu E, et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2022;11:e001751.
A 2011 systematic review identified nine tools to assess patient safety competence in nurses. This review identified multiple instruments released since that review; the most frequently used was the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS). The authors suggest future research should consider including ethics in patient safety and responsiveness to change over time.
No results.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. June 2, 2022;27(11):1-4.
Minimizing look-alike/sound-alike medication risk is a universal need across health care. This story highlights a primary prevention tool that lists problematic drug names. It shares strategies across the medication use process to reduce errors associated with similarly named and labeled medications such as separate storage areas and tall man lettering.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Clark C. MedPage Today. June 2, 2022
Transparency and discussion of errors is a hallmark of the culture needed to improve safety. This article summarizes an Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation statement directing organizations and individuals that provide anesthesia care to protect patients and encourage learning from error. It provides context through a discussion of official reports and investigations of a high-profile incident that culminated in criminal charges for the clinician involved.
Organizational Policy/Guidelines
Iredell B, Mourad H, Nickman NA, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79:730-735.
The advantages of automation can be safely achieved only when the technologies are implemented into processes that support their proper use in regular and urgent situations. This guideline outlines considerations for the safe use of computerized compounding devices to prepare parenteral nutrition admixtures with the broader application to other IV preparations in mind. Effective policy, training, system variation, and vendor partnerships are elements discussed.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Treisman R. National Public Radio. June 6, 2022
Bedrails are used in hospitals and at home to minimize falls despite the potential to contribute to patient harm. This news article summarizes a government recall of ten models of home bed rail devices due to entrapment incidents.
This Month’s WebM&Ms
WebM&M Cases
Garima Agrawal, MD, MPH, and Mithu Molla, MD, MBA |
This WebM&M describes two cases involving patients who became unresponsive in unconventional locations – inside of a computed tomography (CT) scanner and at an outpatient transplant clinic – and strategies to ensure that all healthcare teams are prepared to deliver advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), such as the use of mock codes and standardized ACLS algorithms.
WebM&M Cases
Alexandria DePew, MSN, RN, James Rice, & Julie Chou, BSN |
This WebM&M describes two incidences of the incorrect patient being transported from the Emergency Department (ED) to other parts of the hospital for tests or procedures. In one case, the wrong patient was identified before undergoing an unnecessary procedure; in the second case, the wrong patient received an unnecessary chest x-ray. The commentary highlights the consequences of patient transport errors and strategies to enhance the safety of patient transport and prevent transport-related errors.
This Month’s Perspectives
Interview
Remle Crowe, PhD, NREMT, is the Director of Clinical and Operational Research at ESO. In her professional role, she provides strategic direction for the research mission of the organization, including oversight of a warehouse research data set of de-identified records (the ESO Data Collaborative). We spoke with her about how data is being used in the prehospital setting to improve patient safety.
Perspective
This piece focuses on measuring and monitoring patient safety in the prehospital setting.
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