Incident reporting systems offer important opportunities for health systems to learn from safety events and improve outcomes. This systematic review of 22 studies identified barriers and facilitators influencing how health systems use and learn from incident reporting systems. Barriers included inadequate organizational support and resources, weak safety culture, lack of training and feedback, and a punitive environment. Factors supporting continuous improvement based on incident reporting systems included continuous training for staff, a just culture, leadership investment, and tangible improvements stemming from incident analysis.

Electronic health records (EHR) are essential for recording patients' clinical data but may also perpetuate stigma, particularly for people of color. This article describes how the EHR can perpetuate individual, organizational, and structural racism and ways organizations, researchers, practitioners, and vendors can address racism.

… J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract … Electronic health records … technology infrastructure to continue making progress. … Bates DW, Williams EA. Quality and Safety: Learning from the past and (re)imagining the future. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022;10(12):3141-3144 …

Safety event reporting is a primary method of gathering data to enhance learning from error. This commentary suggests that a broader approach is needed by engaging patients and gathering their perception of safety to provide a full picture of gaps in care that could result in harm.

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Reducing diagnostic errors is a primary … on diagnostic errors in the acute care setting. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49(2):89-97. 10.1016/j.jcjq.2022.11.009 …

Patient falls are associated with poorer clinical outcomes, and increased costs to the health system. This study describes the economic costs of implementing the Fall Tailoring Interventions for Patient Safety (Fall TIPS) Program in eight American hospitals. Results show the Fall TIPS program reduced falls by 19%, avoiding over $14,000 of costs per 1,000 patient days.

An accurate understanding of the frequency, severity, and preventability of adverse events is required to effectively improve patient safety. This study included review of more than 2,800 inpatient records from 11 American hospitals with nearly one quarter having at least one preventable or not preventable adverse event. Overall, approximately 7% of all admissions included at least one preventable event and 1% had a severity level of serious or higher. An accompanying editorial by Dr. Donald Berwick sees the results of this study as a needed stimulus for leadership to prioritize patient safety anew.

… e-prescribing system decision making. … Sheikh A, Coleman J, Chuter A, et al.  Programme Grants Appl Res.  2022;10(7): …

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are required to meet meaningful use and certification standards to receive incentive payments from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This study identified six settlements reached between EHR vendors and the Department of Justice for misconduct related to certification of meaningful use. Certification of EHR systems that don’t meet HHS meaningful use requirements may have implications for patient safety.

Structured tools are increasingly used to identify diagnostic errors and related harms using electronic health record data. In this study, researchers compared the performance of two validated tools (Safer Dx and the DEER taxonomy) to identify diagnostic errors among patients with preventable or non-preventable deaths. Findings indicate that diagnostic errors and diagnostic process failures contributing to death were higher in preventable deaths (56%) but were also present in non-preventable deaths (17%).

Adverse events can be identified through multiple methods, including trigger tools and voluntary reporting systems. In this comparison study, the Global Trigger Tool identified 79 AE in 88 oncology patients, compared to 21 in the voluntary reporting system; only two AE were identified by both. Results indicate multiple sources should be used to detect AE.

Patient exposure to allergens healthcare settings, such as latex or certain medications, can lead to adverse outcomes. Based on data from an incident reporting system, researchers in this study developed a system for classifying allergy-related safety events. Classification categories include: (1) incomplete or inaccurate EHR documentation, (2) human factors, such as overridden allergy alerts, (3) alert limitation or malfunction, (4) data exchange and interoperability failures, and (5) issues with EHR system default options. This classification system can be used to support improvements at the individual, team, and systems levels. 

Patient safety dashboards are used to communicate real-time patient data to appropriately augment care. This study found that higher usage of an electronic patient safety dashboard resulted in lower 30-day readmission rates among patients discharged from adult medicine units compared to lower usage groups.

… J Patient Saf … Patient safety efforts increasingly seek … for them was important. … Butler JM, Gibson B, Schnock K, et al. Patient perceptions of hospital experiences: … implications for innovations in patient safety. J Patient Saf. 2022;18(2):e563-e567. …

The near ubiquitous use of electronic health records has increased interest in using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect errors, including preventable adverse drug events (ADEs). This scoping review identified 78 studies of AI conducted since 1998, and identified promising areas where AI could be used to predict (e.g., therapeutic response) or detect (e.g., medication prescribing errors) patient harm. 

Medical errors are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, and frequently result from potentially preventable human errors associated with poor communication and teamwork. This systematic review included 16 studies that were examined for assessment tools, training interventions, safety culture improvement, and teamwork intervention outcomes. The authors conclude that training staff on teamwork and communication improve the safety culture, and may reduce medical errors and adverse events in the Emergency Department.

… J Health Serv Res Policy … A key aspect of patient safety … about speaking out in hospitals: A qualitative study. J Health Serv Res Policy. Epub 2022 Jan 3. …

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Families and caregivers play an … visitation, both during the pandemic and beyond. … Gandhi TK. Don't go to the hospital alone: ensuring safe, highly reliable patient visitation. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2022;48(1):61-64. …

Dashboards can be used to synthesize data and visualize patient safety indicators and metrics to facilitate decision-making. The authors reviewed design features of patient safety dashboards from 10 hospitals and discuss the variation in the use of performance indicators, style, and timeframe for displayed metrics. The authors suggest that future research explore how specific design elements contribute to usability, and which approaches are associated with improved outcomes.

… and 30 significant failure points. … Griffin JA, Carr K, Bersani K, et al. Analyzing diagnostic errors in the acute setting: a …