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November 9, 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
Hare R, Tapia A, Tyler ER, Fan L, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2022. AHRQ Publication No. 22(23)-0066.
Instituting a culture of safety is fundamental to ensuring patient and staff safety. The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Hospital Survey is a validated survey that has been widely used to assess patient safety culture since 2004. The 2022 report includes data from 400 hospitals. The highest “percent positive” composite measure scores included both effective teamwork and supervisor, manager, or clinical leader support for suggestions for improving patient safety, and addressing patient safety concerns. Overall, when asked to rate their unit/work area on patient safety, 67 percent of respondents rated their unit/work area as “Excellent” or “Very Good.”
Cartland J, Green M, Kamm D, et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2022;11:e001757.
Psychological safety is a cornerstone of high reliability organizations (HROs). This children’s hospital developed two scales (trust in team members and trust in leadership) and one composite measure (local learning) to measure staff psychological safety and evaluate the effectiveness of their transition to high reliability. More than 4,500 health system staff completed the survey; results indicate the two scales are strongly associated with the composite measure.
Ibrahim M, Szeto WY, Gutsche J, et al. Ann Thorac Surg. 2022;114:626-635.
Reports of poor care in the media or public reporting systems can serve as an impetus to overhauling hospitals or hospital units. After several unexpected deaths and a drop in several rating systems, this cardiac surgery department launched a comprehensive quality improvement review. This paper describes the major changes made in the department, including role clarity and minimizing variation in 24/7 staffing.
McCain N, Ferguson T, Barry Hultquist T, et al. J Nurs Care Qual. 2023;38:26-32.
Daily huddles can improve team communication and awareness of safety incidents. This single-site study found that implementation of daily interdisciplinary huddles increased reporting of near-miss events and improved team satisfaction and perceived team communication, collaboration, and psychological safety.
Adamson HK, Foster B, Clarke R, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e1096-e1101.
Computed tomography (CT) scans are important diagnostic tools but can present serious dangers from overexposure to radiation. Researchers reviewed 133 radiation incidents reported to one NHS trust from 2015-2018. Reported events included radiation incidents, near-miss incidents, and repeat scans. Most events were investigated using a systems approach, and staff were encouraged to report all types of incidents, including near misses, to foster a culture of safety and enable learning.
Kunitomo K, Harada T, Watari T. BMC Emerg Med. 2022;22:148.
Cognitive biases can impede diagnostic decision-making and contribute to diagnostic delays and patient harm. This study explored the types of cognitive biases contributing to diagnostic errors in emergency rooms in Japan. The most common biases reported were overconfidence, confirmation bias, availability bias, and anchoring bias. Findings indicate that most diagnostic errors involved overlooking another disease in the same organ group or related organ (e.g., diagnosing headache rather than stroke).
Cakir MS, Wardman JK, Trautrims A. Risk Anal. 2023;43:1902-1916.
Transparency, communication, and value alignment between staff and leaders increase staff trust and comfort in speaking up about concerns. This study describes the relationship of employees’ perception of ethical leadership (manager sets an example of ethical behavior), safety voice (comfort speaking up about COVID-19), ethical ambiguity regarding work responsibilities, and risk perception of coronavirus. Employees who rated their leaders as behaving more ethically were more comfortable speaking up about COVID-19 concerns.
Andraska EA, Phillips AR, Asaadi S, et al. J Surg Educ. 2023;80:102-109.
Patients and clinicians may hold implicit gender biases and rate women clinicians more negatively. In this study, adverse event reports written about residents were reviewed to determine if resident gender was associated with different types and frequency of incident reports. The most comment complaint about men physicians involved a medical error, while the most common complaint type about women included a communication-related event. Additionally, women were more frequently identified by name only, without a title such as “doctor”.
McCain N, Ferguson T, Barry Hultquist T, et al. J Nurs Care Qual. 2023;38:26-32.
Daily huddles can improve team communication and awareness of safety incidents. This single-site study found that implementation of daily interdisciplinary huddles increased reporting of near-miss events and improved team satisfaction and perceived team communication, collaboration, and psychological safety.
Cartland J, Green M, Kamm D, et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2022;11:e001757.
Psychological safety is a cornerstone of high reliability organizations (HROs). This children’s hospital developed two scales (trust in team members and trust in leadership) and one composite measure (local learning) to measure staff psychological safety and evaluate the effectiveness of their transition to high reliability. More than 4,500 health system staff completed the survey; results indicate the two scales are strongly associated with the composite measure.
Harton L, Skemp L. J Nurs Manag. 2022;30:2781-2790.
Nurse leaders play an important role in ensuring a robust patient safety culture. Ten nurse leaders at a United States hospital provided their perspectives on how they ensure a culture of safety on their units. Six overarching themes emerged as well as structural and organizational challenges.
Krvavac S, Jansson B, Bukholm IRK, et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19:10686.
Inpatient suicide is sentinel event. This study examined treatment patterns among patients undergoing inpatient or outpatient psychiatric treatment who died by suicide. The research team found that patients who were primarily treated with medications were less likely to be sufficiently monitored, whereas patients who received both psychotherapy and medication were more likely to receive inadequate treatment.
Lauffenburger JC, Coll MD, Kim E, et al. Med Educ. 2022;56:1032-1041.
Medication errors can be common among medical trainees. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews, this study identified factors influencing suboptimal prescribing by medical residents during overnight coverage, including time pressures, perceived pressure and fear of judgement, clinical acuity, and communication issues between care team members.
Skeff KM, Brown-Johnson CG, Asch SM, et al. J Healthc Manag. 2022;67:339-352.
Electronic health records (EHRs) can improve patient safety but can also contribute to physician burnout. This qualitative study involving physicians and medical trainees found that distress most often occurred when physicians were prioritizing systems-based practice (e.g., EHR-required documentation) over other professional activities, such as patient care, communication, and practice-based learning.
Laing L, Salema N-E, Jeffries M, et al. PLoS ONE. 2022;17:e0275633.
Previous research found that the pharmacist-led IT-based intervention to reduce clinically important medication errors (PINCER) can reduce prescription and medication monitoring errors. This qualitative study explored patients’ perceived acceptability of the PINCER intervention in primary care. Overall perceptions were positive, but participants noted that PINCER acceptability can be improved through enhanced patient-pharmacist relationships, consistent delivery of PINCER-related care, and synchronization of medication reviews with prescription renewals.
Chokshi DA, Beckman AL. JAMA Health Forum. 2022;3:e224703.
Never events serve as triggers to motivate substantive improvement in health care organizations should they occur. This commentary expands the concept to include organizational policies that harm patients and reduce care quality. The authors highlight five strategies to be considered as never events that are particularly problematic for patients: debt collection, inadequate community support, lack of cost transparency, poor staff salaries, and racially-segregated care provision.
Schmidt HG, Mamede S. Diagnosis (Berl). 2023;10:38-42.
Critical thinking skills can enhance diagnostic reasoning. This article discusses how deliberate reflection can improve diagnosis and how deliberate reflection can be integrated into digital decision support tools.
Ibrahim M, Szeto WY, Gutsche J, et al. Ann Thorac Surg. 2022;114:626-635.
Reports of poor care in the media or public reporting systems can serve as an impetus to overhauling hospitals or hospital units. After several unexpected deaths and a drop in several rating systems, this cardiac surgery department launched a comprehensive quality improvement review. This paper describes the major changes made in the department, including role clarity and minimizing variation in 24/7 staffing.
Costin I-C, Marcu LG. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2022;178:103798.
Radiotherapy errors can be significant and sometimes fatal. This systematic review describes errors in patient set up based on verification systems, the immobilization devices used, and the patient’s positioning during breast cancer treatment. The advantages and drawbacks of the most common position verification systems, error types associated with immobilization systems, and the influence of treatment position are reviewed.
Shawahna R, Jaber M, Jumaa E, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e1047-e1060.
Medication errors in pediatric anesthesiology are common and largely preventable. This scoping review characterizing medication errors in pediatric anesthesia found that dosing errors were the most common. Recommendations to minimize or prevent medication errors in pediatric anesthesia commonly related to improving medication administration and documentation.
No results.
Grant Recipient
Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2022.
Diagnostic improvement engages a variety of activities to achieve excellence. This announcement highlights ten organizations AHRQ funded to establish Diagnostic Safety Centers of Excellence. Their focused efforts will work to improve diagnostic safety and quality. Areas of project focus include use of information technology to improve diagnostic accuracy and teamwork as an improvement strategy.
Chicago, IL: The National Association for Healthcare Quality; 2022.
Quality and safety work requires distinct competencies to support effective action and systemic approaches to improvement. This report highlights areas of emphasis and weakness across quality domains and the need for health organization leadership to train and direct designated staff to realize quality and safety goals.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Rau J. Kaiser Health News. November 1, 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated adjustments in activities across health care to address patient care and staffing demands. This news article discusses COVID-19’s impact on the hospital-acquired condition reduction program, and how 43 percent of US hospitals failed to reach readmission goals.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
McFarling UL. STAT. November 1, 2022.
Evidence is building to delineate the effect of systemic bias on care safety. This article recognizes the flaws of pulse oximeters on patients with darker skin, gaps in the literature base, and the work of regulatory bodies to consider redesign and regulation of the device to address bias.
Hare R, Tapia A, Tyler ER, Fan L, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2022. AHRQ Publication No. 22(23)-0066.
Instituting a culture of safety is fundamental to ensuring patient and staff safety. The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Hospital Survey is a validated survey that has been widely used to assess patient safety culture since 2004. The 2022 report includes data from 400 hospitals. The highest “percent positive” composite measure scores included both effective teamwork and supervisor, manager, or clinical leader support for suggestions for improving patient safety, and addressing patient safety concerns. Overall, when asked to rate their unit/work area on patient safety, 67 percent of respondents rated their unit/work area as “Excellent” or “Very Good.”
Newspaper/Magazine Article
Kaplan A. NBC News. October 27, 2022.
Suboptimal working conditions are a known contributor to errors in retail pharmacies. This news article discusses how one major pharmacy chain will adjust their staff quality metrics to eliminate timing as a performance measure in the interest of reducing pharmacist and staff burnout and fulfilment errors.
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
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.
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