… in safety has been endorsed by The Joint Commission as a National Patient Safety Goal. Prior research has shown that … family engagement in safety efforts. … Mishra SR, Haldar S, Khelifi M, Pollack AH, Wanda P. Must We Bust the Trust?: Understanding …

Engaging patients in health care–acquired infection (HAI) prevention, such as asking providers about hand hygiene compliance, has shown promise. This commentary recommends providing patients with information about infection risks and hospital policies as additional areas to involve patients in reducing HAIs.

Antibiotics are among the most remarkable life-saving advances of modern medicine. However, when used incorrectly these medications pose serious risks for patients due to adverse effects and the potential to cause complicated infections, including those resistant to multiple antibiotics. This national database study found that more than half of all patients discharged from a hospital in 2010 received antibiotics during their stay. Many of these antibiotics were deemed to be unnecessary, and there was wide variation seen in antibiotic usage across hospital wards. A model accounting for both direct and indirect effects of antibiotics predicted that decreasing hospitalized patients' exposure to broad-spectrum antibiotics by 30% would lead to a 26% reduction in Clostridium difficile infection. The CDC recommends that all hospitals implement antibiotic stewardship programs, and this article provides core elements to guide these efforts. An AHRQ WebM&M commentary describes inappropriate antibiotic usage that resulted in a patient death. Dr. Alison Holmes spoke about infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship in a recent AHRQ WebM&M interview.

This study reports on the development of an incident reporting system designed according to human factors engineering principles.

Controversy exists regarding whether children should be required to undergo an electrocardiogram before participating in competitive sports. This study found a significant rate of diagnostic error among pediatric cardiologists in the interpretation of abnormal screening electrocardiograms.

This article contemplates the resident 80-hour work week, specifically in neurosurgical training, and posits that such limits will negatively impact the educational experience of surgical specialists.

Duty-hour regulations may have negatively impacted the educational experience of neurosurgical residents.

Treatment of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) benefits from extensive research outlining evidence-based practices for improving the quality of such care. This study discovered that more than 40% of patients presenting with ACS received at least one dose of an antithrombotic medication outside the recommended dosing range. These excess doses lead to greater risks of bleeding; the investigators estimate that 15% of patients experience major bleeding due to these prescribing errors. The findings suggest an alarmingly high rate of potential errors and adverse outcomes for ACS patients. The risks also seem directed at vulnerable populations such as elderly patients with specific comorbidities (eg, diabetes, renal insufficiency, and heart failure). With appropriate increases in utilization of antithrombotic agents for conditions such as ACS, greater attention must focus on safe initial dosing practices to prevent adverse drug events.