Perspectives
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.
Latest Perspectives
Throughout 2022, AHRQ PSNet has shared research that elucidates the complex nature of misdiagnosis and diagnostic safety. This Year in Review explores recent work in diagnostic safety and ways that greater safety may be promoted using tools developed to... Read More
Drs. Susan McGrath and George Blike discuss surveillance monitoring and its challenges and opportunities.
This piece discusses surveillance monitoring of patients in low-acuity units of the hospital to prevent failure to rescue events, its difference from high-acuity continuous monitoring, and its potential applications in... Read More
In the past several decades, technological advances have opened new possibilities for improving patient safety. Using technology to digitize healthcare processes has the potential to increase standardization and efficiency of clinical workflows and... Read More
This piece focuses on perinatal mental health and efforts to improve maternal safety.
Christie Allen is the Senior Director of Quality Improvement at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG). We spoke to her about her experience in maternal safety and improving perinatal mental... Read More
All Perspectives (7)
This piece discusses areas where the healthcare built environment may contribute to the risk of COVID-19 transmission, mitigating strategies, and how the pandemic may impact the built environment moving forward.

Anjali Joseph, PhD, EDAC, is a Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Endowed Chair in Architecture and Health Design. Molly M. Scanlon, PhD, FAIA, FACHA, is the Director at Phigenics, LLC. We spoke with them about how healthcare built environments have been temporarily modified during the COVID-19 pandemic and what learnings may be used moving forward.
In this PSNet Annual Perspective, we worked with co-authors Dr. Jacqueline C. Stocking, a quality improvement and critical care specialist, and Dr. Christian Sandrock, a patient safety professional and emerging infectious diseases specialist, to provide a look at news and research related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient safety.
In this PSNet Annual Perspective, we review key findings related to improvement strategies when communicating with patients and different structured communication techniques to improve communication across providers. Lessons learned from innovative approaches explored under COVID-19 that could be considered as usual care resumes are also discussed.
This piece discusses the challenges faced by long-term care facilities in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on visitor restrictions, staffing turnover, and infection prevention and control.

Charles A Crecelius, MD, PhD CMD, is the Medical Director for post-acute care at BJC Medical Group and the Project Medical Director for the Missouri Quality Initiative (MOQI). Lori L Popejoy, PhD, RN, FAAN is an Associate Dean for Innovation and Partnerships and an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing. We discussed with them the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care facilities.
This Perspective differs from the typical Perspective in that it compiles findings and insights into a series of case studies from interviews and written responses from leaders at three different health systems who had to increase their telehealth capacities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

