Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content

November 2, 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

Horvath D, Keith N, Klamar A, et al. J Bus Psychol. 2023;38:763–775.
Error management, as opposed to error avoidance, has been shown to improve transfer of skills from training to practice. This study compared two interventions to induce error management (direct or indirect encouragement to learn from errors) and error avoidance. As hypothesized, participants in the error management groups performed better, particularly those in the indirect error management intervention.
Saini S, Leung V, Si E, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;31:787-799.
Antimicrobial stewardship is an important element of patient safety. This scoping review explored how antimicrobial indication documentation can impact antibiotic use and clinical outcomes. The authors conclude that this is a growing area of research interest and note that emerging evidence indicates that appropriate antimicrobial indication documentation can improve prescribing and patient outcomes but that larger trials are needed to provide more robust evidence.
Trout KE, Chen L-W, Wilson FA, et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19:12525.
Electronic health record (EHR) implementation can contribute to safe care. This study examined the impact of EHR meaningful use performance thresholds on patient safety events. Researchers found that neither full EHR implementation nor achieving meaningful use thresholds were associated with a composite patient safety score, suggesting that hospitals may need to explore ways to better leverage EHRs and as well other strategies to improve patient safety, such as process improvement and staff training.
Kawsar M, Linander I. Sex Reprod Healthc. 2022;34:100786.
Trans and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) people may delay or avoid seeking healthcare due to experiences with biased or uninformed providers. This study focuses specifically on obstetric and gynecological care providers who provide care to TGNC people. Participants described challenges at the clinic level (e.g., needing at least one knowledgeable and interested clinician) and administrative level (e.g., trans men who have a cervix do not get automatic reminders for PAP tests) that can prevent TGNC people from receiving equitable care.
See H, Shreve L, Hartzell S, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5:e2236621.
Hospital leadership has an instrumental role in fostering patient safety. This cross-sectional study examined differences in hospital quality measures between hospitals who have a physician chief executive officer (CEO) vs. those who have a non-physician CEO. Researchers identified a correlation between hospitals with a physician CEO and patient willingness to recommend the hospital, but did not find any significant relationship between CEO background and performance on quality metrics.
Beerlage-Davids CJ, Ponjee GHM, Vanhommerig JW, et al. Int J Clin Pharm. 2022;44:1434-1441.
Older adults taking multiple medications are at increased risk for adverse drug events following hospital discharge. In this study, patients were contacted two weeks after hospital discharge to evaluate adverse events, adverse drug events, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There was a weak but significant correlation between patient-reported adverse events and HRQoL, but not patient-reported adverse drug events.  
Horvath D, Keith N, Klamar A, et al. J Bus Psychol. 2023;38:763–775.
Error management, as opposed to error avoidance, has been shown to improve transfer of skills from training to practice. This study compared two interventions to induce error management (direct or indirect encouragement to learn from errors) and error avoidance. As hypothesized, participants in the error management groups performed better, particularly those in the indirect error management intervention.
Wiegand AA, Dukhanin V, Sheikh T, et al. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022;9:458-467.
Previous research has identified gender and racial disparities in the burden of diagnostic errors. In this study, researchers conducted a series of human-centered design workshops with a diverse set of stakeholders who generated a set of design challenges, principles, and solutions for addressing diagnostic disparities, improving healthcare quality, and promoting equity and inclusion of marginalized patients. Participants also identified two prototypes for the solutions – a visit preparation guide to teach patients how to advocate for themselves and a tool for identifying patients who may be at increased risk for experiencing a diagnostic error.
Kam AJ, Gonsalves CL, Nordlund SV, et al. BMC Emerg Med. 2022;22:152.
Debriefing after significant clinical events facilitates team-based communication, learning, and support. This study compared two post-resuscitation debriefing tools (Debriefing In Situ Conversation after Emergent Resuscitation Now [DISCERN] and Post-Code Pause [PCP]) following any intubation, resuscitation, or serious/unanticipated patient outcome in a children’s hospital. PCP was found to provide more emotional support and clinical learning, but there were no differences in the remaining categories.
Lusk C, Catchpole K, Neyens DM, et al. Appl Ergon. 2022;104:103831.
Tall Man lettering and color-coding of medication syringes provide visual cues to decrease medication ordering and administration errors. In this study, an icon was added to the standard medication label; participants were asked to identify four medications, with and without the icon, from pre-defined distances. Participants correctly identified the medications with icons slightly more often.
Groves PS, Bunch JL, Hanrahan KM, et al. Clin Nurs Res. 2023;32:105-114.
Patients can provide a unique perspective on safety concerns but may hesitate to speak up. This study was conducted with 19 recently discharged patients or their family members to understand safety or quality concerns they experienced during their stay and whether they voiced the concern to their care team. The paper presents types of concerns and, if parents did not have concerns, what made them feel safe, as well as barriers and facilitators to speaking up.
Volpini ME, Lekx‐Toniolo K, Mahon R, et al. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2022;23:e13742.
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted the way that health care teams function. This study examined how COVID-19-related workflow changes affected reporting of medical errors and near misses occurring in one hospital’s radiation oncology program. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was fewer incidents reported overall, but an increase in submissions related to poor documentation and communication.
Trout KE, Chen L-W, Wilson FA, et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19:12525.
Electronic health record (EHR) implementation can contribute to safe care. This study examined the impact of EHR meaningful use performance thresholds on patient safety events. Researchers found that neither full EHR implementation nor achieving meaningful use thresholds were associated with a composite patient safety score, suggesting that hospitals may need to explore ways to better leverage EHRs and as well other strategies to improve patient safety, such as process improvement and staff training.
McGurgan PM, Calvert KL, Nathan EA, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e1124-e1134.
This survey compared factors influencing opinions about patient-safety-related behaviors among medical students and physicians compared to the general public in Australia. Respondents had significantly different opinions on several of the hypothetical patient safety scenarios used in the survey. Findings suggest that physician and medical student opinions are often influenced by cognitive dissonance, biases, and heuristics.
Sujan M, Pool R, Salmon P. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2022;29:e100516.
Engineering and design concepts are being applied across many health care domains to improve safety. This article summarizes 8 tenets from human factors and ergonomics practice to reduce the potential for the pressures of humanness to detract from the safe use of artificial intelligence.
Saini S, Leung V, Si E, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;31:787-799.
Antimicrobial stewardship is an important element of patient safety. This scoping review explored how antimicrobial indication documentation can impact antibiotic use and clinical outcomes. The authors conclude that this is a growing area of research interest and note that emerging evidence indicates that appropriate antimicrobial indication documentation can improve prescribing and patient outcomes but that larger trials are needed to provide more robust evidence.
Fröding E, Vincent C, Andersson-Gäre B, et al. Arch Suicide Res. 2024;28:1-19.
Earlier research shows many investigations into suicide deaths are conducted to fulfill regulatory requirements, rather than to improve suicide-prevention interventions. This review identified six problems with investigations (e.g., failure to consider deeper system perspective) and proposed a new model of investigation which considers suicide a patient harm.

US Department of Health and Human Services.

The large system change required to reduce patient harm requires multi-stakeholder engagement and sustained commitment. This alliance will work with healthcare systems, federal partners, patients and families, and other stakeholders to implement a national plan to ensure the safety of patients and healthcare workers. The webinar introducing the program, featuring Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, was held November 14, 2022.

Schiff G. Chapter In: Loscalzo J, Fauci A, Kasper D, et al, eds. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 21e. New York, NY: McGraw Hill; 2022

The task of performing a safe diagnosis has gone beyond the use of technical skill and knowledge. This book chapter introduces the application of intersecting concepts such as human factors engineering, cognition, information technology, and learning systems to achieve diagnostic improvement.
Special or Theme Issue

Iyer R, Walker A, eds. Paediatr Anaesth. 2022;32(11):1176-1272.

Progress made in the adoption of infrastructure, Safety I, and Safety II concepts in high- and middle- to lower-income countries around the world support safe pediatric anesthesia care. The articles in this issue illustrate progress made over time in the specialty, highlight areas of focused attention, and examine quality improvement and Lean approaches as success strategies.

ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. October 20, 2022;20(21):1-5.

Errors due to inadequate information use with intravenous smart pumps are a safety concern. This article discusses factors that contribute to medication errors and smart pumps, which include out-of-date drug libraries, omitted dose limits, and variable rate infusions. Recommendations for improvement include the creation, testing, and updating of drug libraries.

This Month’s WebM&Ms

WebM&M Cases
Leilani Schweitzer |
A 58-year-old man underwent a complex surgery to replace his aortic valve. The surgery required prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass time and cross-clamp time and there was a short delay in redosing the cardioplegic solution and the patient developed “stone heart” due to suspected ischemic injury and was unable to come off bypass. The patient was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and transported to the ICU to allow family members to see the patient before stopping life support. Post-mortem case review identified several areas of improvement in the implementation of the Communication AND Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) process. The commentary summarizes the CANDOR process and effective implementation.
WebM&M Cases
Nasim Hedayati, MD, and Richard White, MD |
A 61-year-old women with a mechanical aortic valve on chronic warfarin therapy was referred to the emergency department (ED) for urgent computed tomography (CT) imaging of the right leg to rule out an arterial clot. CT imaging revealed two arterial thromboses the right lower extremity and an echocardiogram revealed a thrombus near the prosthetic heart valve. The attending physician ordered discontinuation of warfarin and initiation of a heparin drip. On hospital day 3, the patient’s right leg became discolored and cold, but the healthcare team insisted that she was being treated appropriately; two days later, the patient complained of pain, additional discoloration, and her toes appeared to be turning black. The patient was taken to the Operating Room (OR) to remove the arterial thrombus, but a more extensive operation was needed to restore arterial blood flow. The commentary summarizes the signs of acute limb ischemia and appropriate approaches to prevent and manage arterial thrombosis, particularly among patients on anticoagulants.
WebM&M Cases
Spotlight Case
Brooks T Kuhn, MD, and Florence Chau-Etchepare, MD |
A 47-year-old man underwent a navigational bronchoscopy with transbronchial biospy under general anesthesia without complications. The patient was transferred to the post-acute care unit (PACU) for observation and a routine post-procedure chest x-ray (CXR). After the CXR was taken, the attending physician spoke to the patient and discussed his impressions, although he had not yet seen the CXR. He left the PACU without communicating with the bedside nurse, who was caring for other patients. The patient informed the nurse that the attending physician had no concerns. While preparing the patient for discharge, the nurse paged the fellow requesting discharge orders. The fellow assumed that the attending physician had reviewed the CXR and submitted the discharge orders as requested. Thirty minutes after the patient was discharged the radiologist called the care team to alert them to the finding of pneumothorax on the post-procedure CXR. The commentary summarizes complications associated with bronchoscopy and strategies to improve perioperative safety.

This Month’s Perspectives

Pascale Carayon picture
Interview
Dr. Pascale Carayon, PhD, is a professor emerita in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the founding director of the Wisconsin Institute for Healthcare Systems Engineering (WIHSE). Dr. Nicole Werner, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Health and Wellness Design at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. We spoke with both of them about the role of human factors engineering has in improving healthcare delivery and its role in patient safety.
Perspective
<p>Pascale Carayon, PhD; Nicole Werner, PhD; Anita Makkenchery, MPH; Sarah E. Mossburg, RN, PhD</p> |
This piece focuses on human factors engineering including application of the SEIPS model to implement care transitions rooted in patient safety and the processes of care.
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!