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July 12, 2023 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
Fink DA, Kilday D, Cao Z, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6:e2317641.
Ensuring all pregnant individuals receive safe maternal care is a national health priority. Using a large national database, this study describes trends in delivery-related severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and mortality in the United States. Maternal mortality decreased for all racial, ethnic, and age groups, while SMM increased for all groups, particularly racial and ethnic minoritized groups. Patients with COVID-19 had a significantly increased risk of death. PSNet features a curated library of maternal safety resources.
Mirarchi FL, Pope TM. J Patient Saf. 2023;19:289-292.
Providing treatment that is discordant with patients’ preferences for end-of-life care can lead to unnecessary or unwanted treatment. This article summarizes the incidence of treatment discordant with their Portable Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and advanced directives (ADs) and tools for use by clinicians and patients and family members to promote concordant care. A previous PSNet WebM&M Spotlight Case discusses the importance of advanced care planning and the consequences of inadequate communication and planning for end-of-life care.
Rowily AA, Jalal Z, Paudyal V. Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2023;22:1113-1125.
Direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) dosing is complex and can lead to medication errors. This analysis of 15,730 incident reports involving DOACs reported in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2019 found that the majority (87.6%) were due to active failures and 2.2% resulted in moderate/severe harm or death. This PSNet WebM&M commentary discusses approaches to improving safety when prescribing DOACs.
Godin MR, Nasr AS. J Nurs Adm. 2023;53:331-336.
Hospital design has been associated with patient safety incidents. This study compared rates of medication administration errors in the pediatric unit of a new evidence-based design (EBD) hospital with rates at the older facility prior to moving to the EBD hospital. Despite implementing EBD, rates of distractions were lower at the older facility; “interruption by physician” was the only distraction type to improve in the new EBD hospital.
Carroll AR, Schlundt D, Bonnet K, et al. Hosp Pediatr. 2023;13:325-342.
Accurate dosing and administration of liquid medications to children can be difficult for parents or caregivers. In this study, family caregivers and clinicians described their experiences at hospital discharge relating to both general and liquid-specific medication counseling. Clinicians and caregivers both stated that teach-back protocols were helpful but inconsistently used. Caregivers were not always shown how to draw up liquid into the syringes leading to them feeling uncertain about giving the correct dose. Health literacy and speaking languages other than English were also described as challenges.
Rowily AA, Jalal Z, Paudyal V. Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2023;22:1113-1125.
Direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) dosing is complex and can lead to medication errors. This analysis of 15,730 incident reports involving DOACs reported in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2019 found that the majority (87.6%) were due to active failures and 2.2% resulted in moderate/severe harm or death. This PSNet WebM&M commentary discusses approaches to improving safety when prescribing DOACs.
Levy KL, Grzyb K, Heidemann LA, et al. J Grad Med Educ. 2023;15:348-355.
The quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) curriculum is increasingly being added to resident education, but implementation and quality of these programs varies. In this study, continuous improvement specialists (CIS) were embedded in resident teams to create an A3, a quality improvement tool. A key component to the QIPS curriculum was aligning resident projects with quality improvement efforts already underway in the department.
Ly DP, Shekelle PG, Song Z. JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183:818-823.
Anchoring bias is the tendency to focus on an initial diagnosis despite later evidence to the contrary. This study measured physicians’ potential anchoring bias regarding patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) with shortness of breath presenting to the emergency department. When the patient’s initial triage note included CHF, physicians were less likely and/or slower to test for pulmonary embolism (PE) than when the triage note did not mention CHF. This suggests physicians may have been subject to anchoring bias.
Berggren K, Ekstedt M, Joelsson‐Alm E, et al. J Clin Nurs. 2023;32:7372-7381.
Intensive care units (ICU) experienced extensive, rapid reorganization at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study of ICU personnel uncovered multiple ways they experienced decreases in patient safety during the initial reorganization. They reported the unfortunate necessity of "cutting safety corners," poorly adapted temporary ICUs, and feelings of increased personal responsibility due to changes in skill mix. Participants reported the care provided was safe, but of lower quality than was typical.
Khazen M, Sullivan EE, Arabadjis S, et al. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e071241.
Improving diagnostic quality is a patient safety priority. In this study, researchers used audio-recorded encounters, clinical note review, and interviews in order to evaluate a tool assessing key elements of diagnostic quality during clinical encounters. Many elements were reliably included in the clinical note or encounter transcript (e.g., follow-up contingencies, red flags) but other elements were often missing (e.g., psychosocial/contextual information). The researchers found that burnout was more common among physicians recording fewer key diagnostic elements.
Keebler JR, Lynch I, Ngo F, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49:373-383.
Handoffs are an inevitable part of hospital care; clear communication between providers is required to ensure safe care. This quality improvement project aimed to improve handoffs between the cardiovascular (CV) operating room and CV intensive care unit by developing, implementing, and sustaining a structured handoff bundle. A participatory design was used to ensure that the tool contained only the key elements to support implementation without overburdening users.
Cho H, Steege LM, Arsenault Knudsen ÉN. Res Nurs Health. 2023;46:445-453.
Psychological safety, the feeling of confidence that speaking up will not result in punishment or shame, can have a positive impact on both patient and healthcare worker outcomes. Conducted in 2021, this study involved 867 hospital nurses in the United States. Nurses with higher psychological safety were more satisfied with their jobs, less likely to leave in the next year, and reported higher patient safety ratings.
Lekman J, Lindén E, Ekstedt M. Scand J Caring Sci. 2023;37:1067-1078.
Risk reduction in home health faces unique challenges. In this study of registered nurses providing home health, challenges included finding a balance between the patient's autonomy and ensuring a safe environment, building relationships with the patient and family, and gaps between resources and requirements.
Fink DA, Kilday D, Cao Z, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6:e2317641.
Ensuring all pregnant individuals receive safe maternal care is a national health priority. Using a large national database, this study describes trends in delivery-related severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and mortality in the United States. Maternal mortality decreased for all racial, ethnic, and age groups, while SMM increased for all groups, particularly racial and ethnic minoritized groups. Patients with COVID-19 had a significantly increased risk of death. PSNet features a curated library of maternal safety resources.
Wilson C, Janes G, Lawton R, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2023;32:573-588.
Feedback interventions (e.g., debriefing, peer-to-peer, audit, and feedback) can encourage learning from safety events and improve quality of care. This systematic review of 48 studies found that providing feedback to emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can improve documentation and adherence to protocols, with some studies also documenting improvements in clinical decision-making and cardiac arrest performance.
Coleman C, Birk S, DeVoe J. JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183:753-754.
Low personal health literacy is associated with increased post-discharge adverse events and health inequities. This commentary describes organizational strategies to improve health literacy, including elimination of jargon in written and spoken communications and assessment of health professionals’ patient-centered communication tools.
Nicklin W, Greenfield D. Int J Qual Health Care. 2023;35:mzad036.
Accreditation remains an important strategy for improving and maintaining high quality despite mixed patient outcomes. This commentary advocates for accrediting agencies to continue with previously-defined safety goals (i.e., not “lowering the bar” due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic) to ensure patients continue to receive excellent care and stakeholders maintain trust in the accreditation process.
Mirarchi FL, Pope TM. J Patient Saf. 2023;19:289-292.
Providing treatment that is discordant with patients’ preferences for end-of-life care can lead to unnecessary or unwanted treatment. This article summarizes the incidence of treatment discordant with their Portable Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and advanced directives (ADs) and tools for use by clinicians and patients and family members to promote concordant care. A previous PSNet WebM&M Spotlight Case discusses the importance of advanced care planning and the consequences of inadequate communication and planning for end-of-life care.
Ariaga A, Balzan D, Falzon S, et al. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2023;16:617-621.
Illegible prescriptions can cause pharmacists to dispense incorrect medications resulting in patient harm. This review identified 15 studies on illegible prescriptions. Most of the studies were more than 10 years old and the authors acknowledge the advent of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) has reduced incidence of illegible prescriptions. However, CPOE relies on highly functional information technology systems which may be cost-prohibitive for some countries.
Bowman CL, De Gorter R, Zaslow J, et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2023;12:e002264.
Never events are catastrophic adverse events resulting in patient death or significant disability that are largely preventable. This narrative synthesis describes which events organizations most frequently identify as never events, and which are most commonly described as entirely preventable. 125 unique never events were identified, nearly 20% of which were classified as entirely preventable. The most frequent never events were wrong site or wrong patient surgery, wrong surgical procedure, and unintentionally retained objects.
Meeting/Conference Proceedings
Board on Health Care Services, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Irvine, CA: Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center: 2021-2023.
These free workshops discussed current challenges in diagnostic excellence, identifications of knowledge gaps, and strategies to decrease maternal disparities, cancer misdiagnoses and problems in the care of older adults that affect diagnosis.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. June 29, 2023;28(13);1-4.
Hard stops in the electronic medical record prevent continuation of ordering, dispensing, or administering an unsafe medication to a patient. This article presents system-level recommendations to effectively introduce hard stops such as including physicians and pharmacists in decision making to reduce risk of workarounds in the future.
Audiovisual
Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. 2020-2024.
Work to improve anesthesia is longstanding. This free podcast series from the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation is updated regularly to cover a range of topics as they affect anesthetic safety including artificial intelligence, look-alike, sound-alike medications, and cosmetic surgery risks.
This Month’s WebM&Ms
WebM&M Cases
Sean Flynn, MD and David K. Barnes, MD, FACEP |
A 56-year-old woman presented to the emergency department (ED) with shaking, weakness, poor oral intake and weight loss, constipation for several days, subjective fevers at home, and mild pain in the chest, back and abdomen. An abdominal x-ray confirmed a large amount of stool in the colon with no free air and her blood leukocyte count was 11,500 cells/μL with 31% bands. She received intravenous fluids but without any fecal output while in the ED. She was discharged to home with a diagnosis of constipation, dehydration and failure to thrive and planned follow-up with her primary care provider. Three days later, she was admitted to a second hospital and the surgeon found stercoral colitis and a large perforated “stercoral ulcer” of the proximal sigmoid colon with disseminated fecal and purulent material. Despite aggressive surgical and postoperative care, she expired from sepsis ten days later. The commentary summarizes the diagnosis and management of stercoral colitis and the importance of prompt identification of bandemia, which should trigger further investigation for an underlying infection.
WebM&M Cases
Spotlight Case
Theresa Duong, MD, Noelle Boctor, MD, and James Bourgeois, OD, MD |
This case describes a 65-year-old man with alcohol use disorder who presented to a hospital 36 hours after his last alcoholic drink and was found to be in severe alcohol withdrawal. The patient’s Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment (CIWA) score was very high, indicating signs and symptoms of severe alcohol withdrawal. He was treated with symptom-triggered dosing of benzodiazepines utilizing the CIWA protocol and dexmedetomidine continuous infusion. The treating team had planned to wean the infusion; however, the following day, the patient was noted to be obtunded on a high dose of dexmedetomidine. He remained somnolent for two additional days and subsequently developed aspiration pneumonia and Clostridioides difficile colitis, which further prolonged his hospital stay and strained relationships among the patient's family, the nursing staff and medical team. The commentary reviews the medications commonly used to treat alcohol withdrawal and the risks associated with these medications, the use of standardized medication order sets for continuous weight-based infusions within the intensive care unit, and ways to minimize clinician bias in assessing and treating substance use disorders.
WebM&M Cases
Christian Bohringer, MBBS, James Bourgeois, OD, MD, Glen Xiong, MD, and Emily Wei, MD |
A 50-year-old unhoused patient presented to the Emergency Department (ED) for evaluation of abdominal pain, reportedly one day after swallowing multiple sharp objects. Based on the radiologic finding of an open safety pin or paper clip in the distal stomach, he was appropriately scheduled for urgent esophagogastroduodenoscopy and ordered to remain NPO (nothing by mouth) to reduce the risk of aspirating gastric contents. However, the order was not communicated verbally and he was allowed to eat, leading to postponement of the procedure and ultimately to an unsatisfactory conclusion with discharge of the patient against medical advice. This case raises interesting questions about the evaluation and treatment of pica in the ED, the communication of dietary status information, the risks of procedural sedation in a non-fasting patient, and the evaluation of decisional capacity in a patient with recurrent pica.
This Month’s Perspectives
Interview
Regina M. Hoffman, MBA, RN, Cindy Manaoat Van, MHSA, CPPS,Sarah E. Mossburg, RN, PhD |
Regina Hoffman is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. We spoke to her about her experience in collaborative learning, sharing information across healthcare facilities, and patient safety education.
Perspectives on Safety
Regina M. Hoffman, MBA, RN, Cindy Manaoat Van, MHSA, CPPS, Sarah E. Mossburg, RN, PhD |
This piece focuses on the importance of building the capacity of the workforce and organizations for patient safety using patient safety education.
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