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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

Joan Stanley, PhD, NP, FAAN, FAANP; Bryan M. Gale, MA; Sarah E. Mossburg, RN, PhD |

This piece discusses how undergraduate professional nursing education integrates the topic of patient safety into classroom and clinical instruction, and how this affects patient safety as a whole.

Patricia McGaffigan, MS, RN, CPPS; Cindy Manaoat Van, MHSA, CPPS; Sarah E. Mossburg, RN, PhD |

This piece focuses on the importance of patient safety following the end of the public health emergency and how organizations can move beyond the pandemic.

All Perspectives (8)

Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 Results

This piece discusses patient safety challenges that arose as a result of the unique care circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly at the height of the pandemic in 2020. 

Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) are organizations dedicated to improving patient safety and healthcare quality that serve to collect and analyze data voluntarily reported by healthcare providers to promote learning. Federal confidentiality and privilege protections apply to certain information (defined as “patient safety work product”) developed when a healthcare provider works with a federally listed PSO under the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 and its implementing regulation. AHRQ is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the PSO listing process. Based on their presentations at an AHRQ annual meeting, we spoke with representatives from two PSOs, Poonam Sharma, MD, MPH, the Senior Clinical Data Analyst at Atrium Health, and Rhonda Dickman, MSN, RN, CPHQ, the Director of the Tennessee Hospital Association PSO about how the unique circumstances surrounding care during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted patient safety risks in both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients.

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

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. 

Lori Popejoy

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.

This piece discusses the impact that COVID-19 has had on the services provided by pharmacists and highlights available resources to support them in ensuring medication safety.
Anna Dopp
Anna Legreid Dopp, Pharm. D is the Senior Director of Clinical Guidelines and Quality Improvement at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). We spoke with her about how pharmacist care delivery services have been impacted by COVID-19.
This PSNet Perspective discusses how telehealth, regardless of payer (Medicare, private insurance, etc.), is supporting both patient and provider safety during the COVID-19 crisis. Precautions that institutions can take to alleviate safety risks resulting from a rapid expansion of capabilities and use are also discussed.
Joel Willis, DO, PA, MA, MPhiL is a Health Policy Fellow affiliated with the American Board of Family Medicine and the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates. Neal Sikka, MD is an Associate Professor and Attending Physician at George Washington Medical Faculty Associates and the Chief of the Innovative Practice and Telehealth Section of the Department of Emergency Medicine. We discussed with them how telehealth at GW is helping to protect patients and providers during the COVID-19 crisis.