Perspectives on Safety
Our Perspectives on Safety section features expert viewpoints on current themes in patient safety, including interviews and written essays published monthly. Annual Perspectives highlight vital and emerging patient safety topics.
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Approach to Improving Safety
Interview
In Conversation With… Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM
Post-Hospital Syndrome, April 2018
Dr. Krumholz is Professor of Medicine at the University of Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. We spoke with him about readmissions and post-hospital syndrome, a term he coined in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine to describe the risk of adverse health events in recently hospitalized patients.
Perspective
Patient Safety During Hospital Discharge
with commentary by Katherine Liang and Eric Alper, MD, Post-Hospital Syndrome, April 2018
This piece explores the risks patients face after hospital discharge and strategies to address them, such as patient education, Project RED, and the Care Transitions Intervention.
Interview
In Conversation With… Amy J. Starmer, MD, MPH
CLER and I-PASS, April 2016
Dr. Starmer is Director of Primary Care Quality Improvement and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. We spoke with her about handoffs and the implementation and findings of the landmark I-PASS study.
Interview
In Conversation With… Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP
Electronic Tools for Patient Safety: Engaging Patients and Providers, September 2015
Dr. Arora is Director of GME Clinical Learning Environment Innovation and Assistant Dean for Scholarship and Discovery at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We spoke with her about the intersection of health information technology and patient safety.
Annual Perspective
Handoffs and Transitions
with commentary by Niraj Sehgal, MD, MPH, Handoffs and Patient Safety, 2014
Perspective
Medication Safety in Nursing Homes: What's Wrong and How to Fix It
with commentary by Jerry Gurwitz, MD, Safety in Nursing Homes, August 2012
This piece, written by a national leader in safe use of medications in elderly patients, discusses strategies for improving the quality and safety of medication use in the nursing home setting.
Interview
In Conversation with…Vineet Arora, MD, MA
Handoffs and Patient Safety, March 2011
An Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, her research focuses on resident duty hours, handoffs, and professionalism.
Perspective
What Have We Learned About Safe Inpatient Handovers?
with commentary by Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, Handoffs and Patient Safety, March 2011
This piece discusses how medical centers can improve handover quality and patient safety.
Interview
In Conversation with...Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD
Checklists, October 2010
Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Health Policy at Johns Hopkins University and Director of the Johns Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group. He may be best known for having led the Michigan Keystone project, which used checklists and other interventions to markedly reduce catheter-associated bloodstream infections in ICUs throughout the state. For this work and more, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. We asked him to speak with us about checklists and other thoughts about the science of improving patient safety.
Perspective
What Makes a Good Checklist
with commentary by Anne Collins McLaughlin, PhD, Checklists, October 2010
The use of checklists is a primitive yet remarkably effective strategy for ensuring accuracy in complex tasks. Checklists have long been used in fields such as aviation and space exploration but have only recently made headway in medicine. The reluctance of medical professionals to adopt checklists is often framed as pushback against "more paperwork" and "cookbook medicine," or due to disbelief in their effectiveness. However, a rich literature has helped establish many best practices in checklist design, and health care now stands to benefit.
Perspective
The Role of Graduate Medical Education (GME) in Improving Patient Safety
with commentary by Arpana R. Vidyarthi, MD; Robert B. Baron, MD, MS, Medical Education and Patient Safety, February 2010
Clear health communication is increasingly recognized as essential for promoting patient safety. Yet according to a recent Joint Commission report, What Did the Doctor Say? Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety, communication problems among health care providers, patients, and families are common and a leading root cause of adverse outcomes.(1) Addressing health literacy—the capacity of individuals to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions—has become a primary objective for many health systems in order to protect patients from harm.
Perspective
How to Identify and Manage Problem Behaviors
with commentary by Alan H. Rosenstein, MD, MBA; Michelle O'Daniel, MSG, MHA, High-Risk Physicians and Disruptive Behaviors, December 2009
The 1999 Institute of Medicine report highlighted the need for health care providers to address the serious concerns raised about the quality and safety of patient care being provided in our health care organizations. Organizations responded by looking at new ways to fix the system, mostly through the introduction of new technologies and system/process redesign. Advances have been made, but there are still significant opportunities for improvement. Is the barrier poor system or process design, or is it related to addressing basic human behaviors?
Perspective
Workarounds and Resiliency on the Front Lines of Health Care
with commentary by Anita L. Tucker, DBA, MS, Workarounds, August 2009
Frontline health care providers are challenged by poorly performing work systems. Required equipment is broken, patient medications are in the wrong dose, key information fails to get communicated, and essential supplies are out of stock.(
Interview
In Conversation with…Sanjay Saint, MD, MPH
Prevention of Urinary Tract Infections: Lessons for Patient Safety, November 2008
Sanjay Saint, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Saint's research has focused on reducing health care–associated infections, with a particular focus on preventing catheter-related urinary tract infections (UTIs). We asked him to speak with us about how research on UTI prevention provides broader lessons for patient safety.
Interview
In Conversation with…Jennifer Daley, MD
Improving Safety in Large Systems, January 2008
Jennifer Daley, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer of Partners Community Healthcare Inc., the organization for the 6000 physicians employed/affiliated with Partners HealthCare System (which includes Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women's Hospitals). From 2002 to 2007, she was the Chief Medical Officer for Tenet Healthcare, one of the nation's largest hospital systems, where she was responsible for the development and implementation of Tenet's Commitment to Quality (C2Q). Her academic background (including her previous directorship of the Center for Health Systems Design and Evaluation in the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare) and her years of leadership at a huge multistate private sector system provide her with a unique perch from which to view patient safety implementation in complex systems.
Interview
In Conversation with...Eric Coleman, MD, MPH
Improving Transitions in Care, December 2007
Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado. Trained in both geriatrics and health services research, Dr. Coleman has emerged as one of the world's leading authorities on issues surrounding transitions of care, particularly between acute and postacute settings. His care model, the Care Transitions Intervention, is being adopted by leading health care organizations around the country. The Intervention has been associated with significant decreases in rehospitalization rates.
Perspective
Care Transitions
with commentary by Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, Improving Transitions in Care, December 2007
Hospital discharge is often viewed as the end of an acute medical event. Goodbyes are said as patients pack their belongings and return home. Physicians scratch the patient's name off their rounding list, and hospital staff remove the patient from the census as they clean out the room...
Interview
In Conversation with...Sorrel King
The Patient's Role in Safety, March 2007
Sorrel King is the mother of Josie King, who died tragically in 2001 at age 18 months because of medical errors during a hospitalization at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has subsequently become one of the nation’s foremost patient advocates for safety, forming an influential foundation (the Josie King Foundation) and partnering with Johns Hopkins to promote the field of patient safety around the world.
Interview
In Conversation with...James P. Bagian, MD
The Transformation of Patient Safety at the VA, September 2006
James P. Bagian, MD, is the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Patient Safety. Dr. Bagian began his career as a mechanical engineer, then became a physician, trained in surgery and anesthesia. A NASA Astronaut for 15 years, he flew on two space shuttle flights. In 2001, the American Medical Association awarded him the Nathan S. Davis Award for outstanding public service in the advancement of public health. We asked Dr. Bagian to speak with us about his experience transforming safety at in Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide.
Perspective
Getting Into Patient Safety: A Personal Story
with commentary by Jeffrey B. Cooper, PhD, Reflections on the History of the Patient Safety Movement, August 2006
My journey into patient safety began in 1972. It was born of serendipity enabled by the good fortune of extraordinary mentors, an environment that supported exploration and allowed for interdisciplinary teamwork, and my own intellectual curiosity. The...