Perspectives on Safety

This perspective examines the troubling decline in maternal health outcomes in the United States and summarizes recent national initiatives to improve safety in maternity care.

Patient engagement is widely acknowledged as a cornerstone of patient safety. Research in 2018 demonstrates that patient engagement, when done correctly, can help health care systems identify safety hazards, regain trust after they occur, and codesign sustainable solutions.

Dr. Bilimoria is the Director of the Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center of Northwestern University, which focuses on national, regional, and local quality improvement research and practical initiatives. He is also the Director of the Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative and a Faculty Scholar at the American College of Surgeons. In the second part of a two-part interview (the earlier one concerned residency duty hours), we spoke with him about quality and safety in surgery.

This piece explores progress of patient safety in the surgical field and where further improvement can be made, such as ongoing assessment of procedural skills along with video recording and review of surgical procedures.

Mr. O'Neill served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush and, prior to that, chairman and CEO of Alcoa. We spoke with him about workplace safety and its relationship to patient safety and organizational excellence.

This piece explores how a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center combined tools and techniques used in manufacturing along with continuous improvement to develop a process to identify, prioritize, and mitigate hazards in health care settings.

Opioids are known to be high risk medications, and concerns about patient harm from prescription opioid misuse have been increasing in the United States. This Annual Perspective summarizes research published in 2016 that explored the extent of harm from their use, described problematic prescribing practices that likely contribute to adverse events, and demonstrated some promising practices to foster safer opioid use.

Root cause analysis is widely accepted as a key component of patient safety programs. In 2016, the literature outlined ongoing problems with the root cause analysis process and shed light on opportunities to improve its application in health care. This Annual Perspective reviews concerns about the root cause analysis process and highlights recommendations for improvement put forth by the National Patient Safety Foundation.

Dr. Bindman, an expert in health policy in underserved populations, was appointed as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in May 2016. We spoke with him about his new role at AHRQ.

In January 2016, Mr. Feeley, a leading health care administrator from Scotland, became the third President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), probably the most influential organization of its kind. We spoke with him about his work at IHI to improve health care quality and safety.

Dr. Nasca is CEO of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the major accreditor of residency and fellowship training programs, and CEO of ACGME International. We spoke with him about ACGME's Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) program and its impact on medical education.

Dr. Kronick has served as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since August 2013, and will be stepping down from the role this month. We spoke with him about AHRQ's efforts to develop measurements and implement improvements in patient safety.

Dr. McGann is the Chief Medical Officer for Quality Improvement at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Co-Director of the CMS Partnership for Patients. We spoke with him about his work at CMS and with the Partnership for Patients initiative.

Clinician burnout is prevalent across health care settings and may impair clinicians' ability to maintain safe practices and detect emerging safety threats. This Annual Perspective summarizes studies published in 2015, with a particular focus on the relationship between burnout and patient safety, and interventions to address burnout among clinicians.

Dr. Shojania is Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Quality and Safety and Director of the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto. We spoke with him about the evolution of patient safety research over the past 15 years.

Ms. Zipperer was a founding staff member of the National Patient Safety Foundation as their information projects manager and has also been Cybrarian for AHRQ Patient Safety Network since its inception. We spoke with her about the role of librarians in patient safety.

This editorial provides an overview of how PSNet and WebM&M have evolved in the past decade.

Maureen Bisognano is President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). We spoke with her about IHI's efforts to improve health care on a global level.

Dr. Cassel, President and CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF), is a leading expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics, and quality of care. We spoke with her about NQF's work in developing and utilizing quality measures to improve safety in health care.