A poor work environment can have a negative impact on quality and safety of patient care. This study of primary care nurses in Portugal shows that better work practice environments are associated with higher quality of care, patient safety, and safety culture. Nursing foundations for quality of care and collegial nurse-physician relations were the highest rated survey dimensions.

Medication errors not only harm patients and increase hospital length of stay, but they are also an economic burden to patients and the health system. This study describes the types of medication errors and related costs in a Brazilian adult intensive care unit (ICU). The most common error type was omission, accounting for half of all errors. Scheduling and prescription errors were significantly correlated with increased hospitalization costs. Additionally, some medication doses contained more than one error type, driving up costs even further.

Poor nurse staffing has long been recognized as a patient safety issue. This analysis of three UK National Health Service hospitals examined the differences in in-hospital deaths among different nursing team sizes and compositions. Researchers identified higher inpatient mortality with higher nurse staffing and seniority levels (i.e., more registered nurses [RNs]) but no changes in mortality related to health care support workers (HCSW). Authors surmised that HCSWs may not be a substitute for RNs.

Children with medical complexity (CMC) frequently take multiple medications, often from multiple prescribers. This commentary describes the particular vulnerabilities CMC face throughout the medication use cycle, along with ways for the prescriber and system to mitigate the risks of polypharmacy.

Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is a prospective method for identifying and preventing potential error risks. Using FMECA, public health medical residents calculated a Risk Priority Number (RPN), or criticality, for each possible failure mode in cancer treatment prescription and administration. Each phase of the cancer treatment process had at least one critical step identified, and actions were developed to reduce the likelihood of the error occurring and/or to increase the likelihood of the error being detected.

Research has shown that prescribers who are notified of a patient’s fatal opioid overdose will decrease milligram morphine equivalents (MME) up to 3 months following notification as compared to prescribers who are not notified. This article reports on the same cohort’s prescribing behavior at 4-12 months. Among prescribers who received notification, total weekly MME continued to decrease more than the control group during the 4-12 month period.

Medical errors that receive widespread media attention frequently spur health systems to reexamine their own culture and practices to prevent similar errors. This commentary describes one health system’s effort to identify and improve the system factors (systems, processes, technology) involved in the error. The action plan proposed by this project includes ensuring a just culture so staff feel empowered to report errors and near-misses; regularly review and improve medication delivery systems; build resilient medication delivery systems; and, establish methods of investigations.

… and proactive COVID-19 testing. … Denning M, Goh ET, Tan B, et al. Determinants of burnout and other aspects of …

Older adults are at increased risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 infections. This study examined the potential severe drug-drug interactions (DDI) among hospitalized older adults taking two or more medications at admission and discharge. There was a significant increase in prescription of proton pump inhibitors and heparins from admission to discharge. Clinical decision support systems should be used to assess potential DDI with particular attention paid to the risk of bleeding complications linked to heparin-based DDIs.

Health systems have implemented various strategies to reduce the risk of nosocomial transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Based on ten studies, the authors estimate that the nosocomial transmission rate is 12-15%. The authors discuss the role of infection prevention and control procedures, and the potential implications of hospital-acquired COVID-19 on medical malpractice.  

Prior research suggests that patients undergoing surgery at night are at greater risk for intraoperative adverse events. This retrospective cohort study including over 350,000 adult patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery found that night surgery was associated with an increased risk of postoperative mortality and morbidity. The effect was mediated by potentially preventable factors, including higher blood transfusion rates and more frequent provider handovers.

Underreporting of ‘near misses’ can impede efforts to improve healthcare quality and patient safety. Based on hypothetical scenarios involving a patient with a cardiac pacemaker undergoing radiation treatment, this study surveyed healthcare staff about their evaluation of the events and their willingness to report based on their evaluation of the hypothetical scenarios. Findings suggest that cognitive biases can influence willingness to report based on how near miss events are perceived.  

Antimicrobial stewardship is one strategy to improve antibiotic use to reduce hospital-acquired infections. In this editorial, the authors discuss negative effects of COVID-19 on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic stewardship in the emergency department (ED) and approaches for optimizing ED stewardship during the pandemic.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to patients delaying or forgoing necessary health care.  Comparing the same 10-week period in 2018, 2019 and 2020, researchers used data from seven hospitals in northern-central Italy to assess the impact of COVID-19 on cancer diagnoses. Compared to prior years, cancer diagnoses overall fell by 45% in 2020. Researchers noted the largest decrease in cancer diagnoses among skin, colorectal, prostate, and bladder cancers.  

This article discusses the threat that the “flexibilization” of science has played during the COVID-19 pandemic, defined as the loosening of methodological standards leading to low-quality studies, and resulting in unreliable data and anecdotal evidence.

This study involving a survey of incoming interns found that nearly all medical interns believe that inadequate physical examination can lead to adverse events and that 45% have witnessed an adverse event due to inadequate examination. The authors propose a five-pronged intervention for improving physical examination training.

This commentary reviews the principles of high reliability organizations and their application to emergency department pandemic response and describes the experience of one children’s hospital in Alberta, Canada applying these principles in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Actions taken by the hospital included the use of an interprofessional ED quality council to identify processes where high reliability is essential in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as resuscitations, intubations, donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE), and preventing contamination.

New meta-analysis on potential impacts of provider burnout concludes a relationship exists between high levels of burnout—from factors such as high workload and ineffective interpersonal relationships—and worsening patient safety.