Email Updates
June 22, 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
Fawzy A, Wu TD, Wang K, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2022;182:730-738.
Black and brown patients have experienced disproportionately poorer outcomes from COVID-19 infection as compared with white patients. This study found that patients who identified as Asian, Black, or Hispanic may not have received timely diagnosis or treatment due to inaccurately measured pulse oximetry (SpO2). These inaccuracies and discrepancies should be considered in COVID outcome research as well as other respiratory illnesses that rely on SpO2 measurement for treatment.
Giardina TD, Shahid U, Mushtaq U, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2022;37:3965-3972.
Achieving diagnostic safety requires multidisciplinary approaches. Based on interviews with safety leaders across the United States, this article discusses how different organizations approach diagnostic safety. Respondents discuss barriers to implementing diagnostic safety activities as well as strategies to overcome barriers, highlighting the role of patient engagement and dedicated diagnostic safety champions.
Wang Y, Eldridge N, Metersky ML, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5:e2214586.
Hospital readmission rates are an important indicator of patient safety. This cross-sectional study examined whether patients admitted to hospitals with high readmission rates also had higher risks of in-hospital adverse events. Based on a sample of over 46,000 Medicare patients with pneumonia discharged between July 2010 and December 2019 and linked to Medicare adverse event data, researchers found that patients admitted to hospitals with high all-cause readmission rates were more likely to experience an adverse event during their admission.
Connor DM, Narayana S, Dhaliwal G. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022;9:265-273.
Teaching clinical reasoning to medical students is a key strategy for reducing diagnostic errors. This paper describes a new longitudinal clinical reasoning curriculum taught in a US medical school’s first and second year of medical training. Students reported high self-efficacy after completing the curriculum; however, a competency audit revealed room for improvement in including system-related aspects of care.
Wang Y, Eldridge N, Metersky ML, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5:e2214586.
Hospital readmission rates are an important indicator of patient safety. This cross-sectional study examined whether patients admitted to hospitals with high readmission rates also had higher risks of in-hospital adverse events. Based on a sample of over 46,000 Medicare patients with pneumonia discharged between July 2010 and December 2019 and linked to Medicare adverse event data, researchers found that patients admitted to hospitals with high all-cause readmission rates were more likely to experience an adverse event during their admission.
Giardina TD, Shahid U, Mushtaq U, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2022;37:3965-3972.
Achieving diagnostic safety requires multidisciplinary approaches. Based on interviews with safety leaders across the United States, this article discusses how different organizations approach diagnostic safety. Respondents discuss barriers to implementing diagnostic safety activities as well as strategies to overcome barriers, highlighting the role of patient engagement and dedicated diagnostic safety champions.
Barnard C, Chung JW, Flaherty V, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2022;48:430-438.
Organizations such as The Joint Commission and the Leapfrog Group require participating healthcare organizations to evaluate their patient safety culture, but surveys can represent a time burden on staff. An Illinois health system aimed to lessen this burden on staff by creating a shorter, revised survey. The final survey consisted of five questions with comparable measurement properties of the original 17-question survey; however, the authors caution the shorter survey will yield less detail than the longer version.
Powell ES, Bond WF, Barker LT, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:302-309.
Telehealth is increasingly used to connect rural hospitals with specialists in other areas and can improve patient outcomes. This study found that in situ simulation training in rural emergency departments resulted in small increases in the use of telemedicine for patients presenting with sepsis and led to improvements in sepsis process care outcomes.
Falk A-C, Nymark C, Göransson KE, et al. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2022:103276.
Needed nursing care that is delayed, partially completed, or not completed at all is known as missed nursing care (MNC). Researchers surveyed critical care registered nurses during two phases of the COVID-19 pandemic about recent missed nursing care, perceived quality of care, and contributing factors. There were no major changes in the types of, or reasons for, MNC compared to the reference survey completed in fall 2019.
de Loizaga SR, Clarke-Myers K, R Khoury P, et al. J Patient Exp. 2022;9:237437352211026.
Parents have reported the importance of being involved in discussions with clinicians following adverse events involving their children. This study asked parents and physicians about their perspectives on inclusion of parents in morbidity and mortality (M&M) reviews. Similar to earlier studies, parents wished to be involved, while physicians were concerned that parent involvement would draw attention away from the overall purpose (e.g., quality improvement) of M&M conferences.
Fawzy A, Wu TD, Wang K, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2022;182:730-738.
Black and brown patients have experienced disproportionately poorer outcomes from COVID-19 infection as compared with white patients. This study found that patients who identified as Asian, Black, or Hispanic may not have received timely diagnosis or treatment due to inaccurately measured pulse oximetry (SpO2). These inaccuracies and discrepancies should be considered in COVID outcome research as well as other respiratory illnesses that rely on SpO2 measurement for treatment.
Devarajan V, Nadeau NL, Creedon JK, et al. Pediatrics. 2022;149:e2020014696.
Several factors contribute to the increased risk of prescribing errors for children, including weight-based dosing and drug formulation. This quality improvement project in one pediatric emergency department identified four key drivers and implemented four interventions to reduce errors. Prescribing errors were reduced across three plan-do-study-act cycles, and improvements were maintained six months after the final cycle.
Milliren CE, Bailey G, Graham DA, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e741-e746.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) use a variety of quality indicators to measure and rank hospital performance. In this study, researchers analyzed the variance between AHRQ pediatric quality indicators and CMS hospital-acquired condition indicators and evaluated the use of alternative composite scores. The researchers identified substantial within-hospital variation across the indicators and could not identify a single composite measure capable of capturing all of the variance observed across the broad range of outcomes. The authors call for additional research to identify meaningful approaches to performance ranking for children’s hospitals.
Rotteau L, Goldman J, Shojania KG, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;31:867-877.
Achieving high reliability is a goal for every healthcare organization. Based on interviews with hospital leadership, clinicians, and staff, this study explored how healthcare professionals understand and perceive high-reliability principles. Findings indicate that some principles are more supported than others and identified inconsistent understanding of principles across different types of healthcare professionals.
Wooldridge AR, Carayon P, Hoonakker PLT, et al. Hum Factors. 2024;66:271-293.
Handoffs between inpatient care settings represent a vulnerable time for patients. This qualitative study explores how team cognition occurs during care transitions and interprofessional handoffs between inpatient settings and the influence of sociotechnical systems, such as communication workflows or electronic heath record-based interfaces) influence team cognition. Participants highlighted how interprofessional handoffs can both enhance (e.g., information exchange) and hinder (e.g., logistic challenges and imprecise communication) team cognition.
Cedillo G, George MC, Deshpande R, et al. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2022;17:28.
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an opioid prescribing guideline intended to reverse the increasing death rate from opioid overdoses. This study describes the development, implementation, and effect of a safe prescribing strategy (TOWER) in an HIV-focused primary care setting. Providers using TOWER were more adherent to the CDC guidelines, with no worsening patient-reported outcome measures.
Commentary
Kostick-Quenet KM, Cohen IG, Gerke S, et al. J Law Med Ethics. 2022;50:92-100.
Biases in decision support technologies precipitate racial inequities. This commentary discusses how algorithms in machine learning contribute to inaccuracies in the care of persons of color and the displaced. Legal actions to mitigate racial biases in decision making programs and implementation steps toward improvement are discussed.
Organizational Policy/Guidelines
Buetti N, Marschall J, Drees M, et al. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2022;43:553-569.
Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) are a target of safety improvement initiatives, as they are common and harmful. This guideline provides an update on recommended steps for organizations to support the implementation of CLASBI reduction efforts.
Davy A, Borycki EM. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022;290:438-441.
Dashboards provide a way to display patient safety data (e.g., medication safety) in real time. This narrative review and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) of existing patient safety dashboards can form the basis for developing future dashboards.
Lam JYJ, Barras M, Scott IA, et al. Drugs Aging. 2022;39:333-353.
Patient characteristics such as age, comorbidities and frailty can increase risk for medication errors. This scoping review shows that studies evaluating medication harm in frail patients are largely limited the methodological quality and inadequate reporting. The authors discuss the need for more robust studies examining this relationship, including the effect of polypharmacy.
No results.
Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research. Fed Register. June 3, 2022;87: 33795-33796.
Surveys are recognized tools to inform hospitals of the current status of their safety culture. This notice calls for public comment on the intention of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to launch the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database data collection process. The deadline for submitting comments on this notification is now passed.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Ferrere A, Rider C, Renerte B et al. Sloan Manag Rev. Summer 2022;39-43.
A baseline expectation in a safe organization is that employees feel comfortable and supported when sharing concerns. This article summarizes key results of a large workplace survey to identify cultural elements supporting the psychological safety required to encourage speaking up when ethical or other issues are identified in operations.
Hunt J. London, UK: Swift Press; 2022. ISBN: 9781800751224.
The National Health Service (NHS) has been a leader in patient safety for over 20 years, and yet NHS patients still experience harm. This book shares leadership insights from former NHS Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt intended to help the institution reach a place where zero patient harm will occur. The book discusses primary causes of patient harm, the challenge of organizational culture, solutions supporting improvement, and implementation strategies.
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.
Stay Updated!
PSNet highlights the latest patient safety literature, news, and expert commentary, including Weekly Updates, WebM&M, and Perspectives on Safety. Sign up today to get weekly and monthly updates via emails!
