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.

… to November 2020, 389 ambulatory practices participated in a quality improvement project using the Agency for Healthcare … that completed the program and submitted data showed a significant decrease of antibiotic prescribing for acute …

… for safer and more appropriate prescribing. … Galanter W, Eguale T, Gellad W, et al. Personal formularies of primary care physicians …

Prescribing unnecessary antibiotics increases the risk of resistant infections and can lead to patient harm. In this cross-sectional study, researchers found that 23% of the 15,455,834 outpatient antibiotic prescriptions filled among a cohort of 19.2 million patients over a 1-year period were consistent with inappropriate prescribing.

… frequently receive opioid prescriptions even if they have a history of overdose . In this randomized trial involving …

Despite the benefits of health information technology, such systems can have detrimental effects on clinician decision-making. This commentary discusses how electronic health record design can contribute to inappropriate test ordering. The author recommends that influences such as heuristics and social norms be considered when developing electronic health record systems to improve care.

… the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections and is a recognized patient safety risk. A WebM&M commentary discusses catastrophic complications …

Public ratings of hospital quality and safety data may not always provide the best information for patients and clinicians. This commentary discusses problems with the existing set of patient safety metrics and suggests that measurement approaches need to be improved to enhance transparency and decision making.

… prescribing rates compared to controls. Antibiotics are a significant source of medical care overuse and …

There is concern around patients' increasing use of online symptom checkers for medical information and health care recommendations. This study used standardized patient cases to examine the accuracy of 23 publicly available services which aim to provide a diagnosis for specific symptoms or give a triage recommendation. The online services listed the correct diagnosis first in about one-third of instances and listed the correct diagnosis in the top 20 possible diagnoses in more than half of cases. Concerningly, symptom checkers provided varying triage recommendations, with appropriate advice ranging from 33% to 78% of evaluations. Certain symptom checkers encouraged users to seek care in cases where self-care was reasonable. These data do not support the use of online symptom checkers for diagnosis or triage and argue for use of simulation approaches to evaluate digital health tools. A related editorial calls for evidence on the actual use of such symptom checkers, followed by randomized trials to evaluate the effect on outcomes and costs prior to their widespread implementation.

Unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics for viral conditions can pose patient safety risks. This study found that primary care physicians are more likely to prescribe antibiotics inappropriately toward the end of their clinic session (late morning or late afternoon), which likely represents clinicians' decision fatigue.

… patient safety categorized inappropriate plans of care as a medical error. This broad classification encompassed …

This AHRQ-funded study found that physicians usually chose appropriate reasons for excluding patients from inclusion in quality measurement programs.

… The American journal of medicine … Am J Med … Medication reconciliation discrepancies—differences … in this study. These discrepancies were associated with a higher likelihood of uncontrolled hypertension. Prior …

Widespread implementation of rapid response teams (RRTs) has been spurred by endorsements from prominent organizations and a Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal. However, the evidence on effectiveness of such teams is mixed, although recent single-institution studies have shown impressive improvements in clinical outcomes. This study found that implementation of an RRT at an academic medical center did not improve clinical outcomes over a 6-month follow-up period. This study is one of the few to evaluate the effectiveness of teams led by resident physicians and nurses, in contrast with other studies evaluating RRTs led by critical care physicians.

… Journal of general internal medicine … J Gen Intern Med … This study discovered that limited health … medication reconciliation and shares tips on designing a process in the hospital setting. …

This cross-sectional study found that outpatient practices' use of an electronic health record (EHR) was not associated with higher quality care. The authors posit several reasons for this finding, including the possibility that EHRs were not implemented as fully as at benchmark institutions, or lacked decision support.