Marginalized patients are more likely to experience adverse events and it is important to encourage effective disclosure to reinforce and reestablish trust between patients and providers. This qualitative study involving clinicians and patient safety professionals explored challenges responding to and disclosing errors involving historically marginalized patients. Participants identified multilevel challenges, including fragmentation of care and patient mistrust as well a desire for disclosure training and culturally appropriate disclosure toolkits to support effective error disclosure.

Patient and family engagement is essential to effective and safe diagnosis. OurDX is a previsit online engagement tool to help identify opportunities to improve diagnostic safety in patients and families living with chronic conditions. In this study, researchers implemented OurDX in specialty and primary care clinics at two academic healthcare organizations and examined the potential safety issues and whether patient/family contributions were integrated into the post-visit notes. Qualitative analysis of 450 OurDX reports found that participants contributed important information about the diagnostic process. Participants with diagnostic concerns were more likely to raise concerns about the diagnostic process (e.g., access barriers, problems with tests/referrals, communication breakdowns), which may represent diagnostic blind spots.

Numerous organizations promote communication with patients and families after harm has occurred due to medical error. This commentary reflects on perceived barriers to patient disclosure and describes the patient and family perspectives and needs following harm. The authors promote the use of Communication and Resolution Programs (CRP) such as the learning community Pathway to Accountability, Compassion, and Transparency (PACT) to advance research, policy, and transparency regarding patient harm.

Patients and families are encouraged to play an active role in patient safety by, for example, reporting inaccurate or incomplete electronic health record notes after visits. In this study, patients and families at two US healthcare sites (pediatric subspecialty and adult primary care) were invited to complete a survey (OurDX) before their visit to identify their visit priority, recent medical history/symptoms, and potential diagnostic concerns. In total, 7.5% of patients and families reported a potential diagnostic concern, mainly not feeling heard by their provider.

Patients who access their electronic health record (EHR) through a patient portal have identified clinically relevant errors such as allergies, medications, or diagnostic errors. This study focused on patient-identified diagnostic safety blind spots in ambulatory care clinical notes. The largest category of blind spots was diagnostic misalignment. Many patients indicated they reported the errors to the clinicians, suggesting shared notes may increase patient and family engagement in safety.

Communication with patients and caregivers is important after a diagnostic error. Using a simulated case involving delayed diagnosis of breast cancer, this study compared how crowdsourced laypeople and patient advocates rate physician disclosure communication skills. Findings suggest that patient advocates rate communication skills more stringently than laypeople, but laypeople can correctly identify physicians with high and low communication skills.

Limited English-language health literacy (LEHL) and disadvantaged socioeconomic position (dSEP) have been shown to increase risk of adverse events and near misses. Using data from the 2017 Institute for Healthcare Improvement-National Patient Safety Foundation study, researchers found, while respondents with LEHL or dSEP experienced diagnostic errors at the same rate as their counterparts, they were more likely to report unique contributing factors and more long-term emotional, physical, and financial harm.

Patient engagement and encouraging speaking up can promote safety. This randomized study found that patients undergoing cancer treatment who were randomized to an active outreach program were significantly more likely to speak up and report healthcare concerns than patients in the control group.

This qualitative study explored the long-term impacts experienced by patients and family members involved in medical harm events. Participants described psychological, social/behavioral, and financial impacts and more than half reported ongoing physical impacts.

Effective communication between patients and providers – including after an adverse event – is essential for patient safety. This qualitative study identified unique challenges experienced by parents and providers when communicating about adverse birth outcomes – high expectations, powerful emotions, rapid change and progression, family involvement, multiple patients and providers involved, and litigious environment. The authors outline strategies recommended by parents and providers to address these challenges.

… were identified in each step of the diagnostic process. … Bell SK, Bourgeois F, DesRoches CM, et al. Filling a gap in safety metrics: development of a patient-centred framework to identify and categorise …

Disclosure of medical errors is supported by both patients and providers. Following the implementation of the Veterans Health Administration’s policy on disclosing medical errors to patients and their families, it was necessary to determine the effects of implementation (or not) of this policy. This article describes the development, implementation, and sustainment of an error disclosure toolkit for use across the VA system.

Providing patients access to their medical records can improve patient engagement and error identification. A survey of patients and families found that about half of adult patients and pediatric families who perceived a serious mistake in their ambulatory care notes reported it, but identified several barriers to reporting (e.g. no clear reporting mechanism, lack of perceived support).  

… and the use of metrics to track CRP functioning.  … Gallagher TH, Boothman RC, Schweitzer L, et al. Making …

… claims. This article discusses the possibility of a medical malpractice crisis in response to poor outcomes … prevent traditional legal actions. … Sage WM, Boothman RC, Gallagher TH. Another medical malpractice crisis?: Try …

This commentary discusses safety outcomes associated with late career practitioners, measuring practitioner performance, and options for practitioners with declining performance, including key features and lessons learned from early adopters of late career practitioner programs.

This article reports findings from a survey of pediatric trainees at two large children’s hospitals on attitudes and behaviors in regard to speaking up about traditional safety threats and unprofessional behavior. While trainees more commonly observed unprofessional behavior than safety threats, they are less likely to speak up when presented with unprofessional behavior.

… The analysis found that 4,830 patients (21%) perceived a mistake in one or more notes in the past 12 months and that … Older and sicker patients were more likely to report a serious error compared to younger and healthier patients. …

This article evaluates the implementation of the We Want to Know program, which encourages hospitalized patients to speak up about breakdowns in care. Over a three-year period at one large, community hospital, the program interviewed over 4,600 patients and identified 822 (17.6%) who experienced a breakdown in care. Of those, 66.5% identified harm associated with the incident and 61.9% had spoken to someone at the hospital about it. Stakeholders (e.g., nurses, nurse managers, physicians, hospital administrators and leadership) found the program reports provided timely, actionable information and allowed for real-time responses and resolutions. Concerns cited by stakeholders included overlap with exiting patient safety reporting efforts, high level of effort and resources required, ensuring adequate responses.

… patients – particularly elderly, less educated, non-white, and non-English speaking patients – with access to …