Lack of patient engagement in care can place them at increased risk for safety events. This qualitative study explored ethnic minority stakeholder perspectives about patient engagement in cancer care. Focus groups consisting of participants from consumer and health organizations involved in cancer care in Australia identified three themes supporting successful engagement – consideration of sociocultural beliefs about cancer, adaptation of existing techniques tailored to stakeholders (e.g., culturally specific content), and accounting for factors such as cultural competence during implementation.

Potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults can result in medication-related harm. This systematic review of 63 studies found that potentially inappropriate prescribing was significantly associated with several system-related and health-related outcomes for older adults, including mortality, readmissions, adverse drug events, and functional decline.

This study explored associations between person-related (e.g., individual responsible for medication error), environment-related (e.g., transitions of care), and communication-related (e.g., misreading of medication order) medication errors in two Australian hospitals. The authors recommend that improved communication regarding medications with patients and families could reduce medication errors associated with possible or probable harm.

Patients and families are essential partners in identifying and preventing safety events. This systematic review characterizes patient engagement along a continuum of engagement that includes consultation (e.g., patients are invited to provide input about a specific safety issue), involvement (e.g., patients are asked about their preferences/concerns and given the opportunity to engage with practitioners about a specific issue), and partnership/leadership (e.g., patients ‘work’ with practitioners to improve the safety of their care, often using tools designed to empower patients to alert practitioners to concerns).

Medication errors are a common cause of preventable harm in long-term care facilities. This systematic review explored how residents and families engage in medication management in aged care facilities. Factors hindering effective engagement included insufficient communication between residents, families, and providers; families’ hesitation about decision making; and lack of provider training.

Medication safety, particularly among older adults who may have complex medication regimens, is an ongoing safety concern. This study explored medication safety behaviors among young-old (65-74 years), middle-old (75-84 years) and old-old (>85 years) adults. The authors found that older adults are willing to engage in medication safety behaviors, but that preferred behaviors (e.g., verbal behaviors, self-administering medication, reviewing medication charts) differed among the age groups.

Interprofessional communication is critical to safe medication management during transitions of care. Researchers conducted this ethnographic study to explore inter- and intra-professional communications during older adults’ transitions of care. Communication was influenced by the transferring setting, receiving setting, and ‘real-time’ communication. Lack of, or poor, communication impacted medication safety; researchers recommend more proactive communication and involvement of the pharmacist.

Oral chemotherapy regimens are complex and may lead to severe adverse drug events. Through ethnographic research, the authors found that the two most important factors in ensuring optimal management of oral chemotherapy are (1) early recognition and appropriate response to side effects and (2) maintenance of safe and effective medication communication.

In this systematic review, the authors characterized patient safety events affecting ethnic minority populations internationally. Findings indicate that ethnic minority populations experience higher rates of hospital-acquired infections, complications, adverse drug events, and dosing errors. The authors identified several factors contributing to the increased risk, including language proficiency, beliefs about illness and treatment, interpreter use, consumer engagement, and interactions with health professionals.

Transitions of care represent a vulnerable time for patients. Older adults in particular may experience a variety of challenges related to such transitions, including managing changes to their medications. This systematic review suggests that there is significant opportunity for health care providers to improve family engagement in managing medications of elderly patients during care transitions.

Communication failures hinder safety of health care delivery and are particularly prevalent in medication errors. This review explores how interdisciplinary work can augment communication during medication processes and highlights interdisciplinary collaboration strategies such as pharmacist engagement in care teams.

Interruptions in nursing care are common and can contribute to errors. In keeping with prior research, this observational study of nurses found that interruptions in medication preparation and administration can compromise patient safety.

This study elicited patients' reports of adverse events during hospitalization. Researchers found that 7% of hospitalized patients reported experiencing an adverse event and, consistent with prior studies, patients contributed unique contextual data to adverse event reporting.

Polypharmacy, or taking multiple medications, is a risk factor for adverse drug events. This interview study examined how family members participated in medication management for hospitalized patients taking five or more medications and found that communication between family members and health care professionals was insufficient. The authors advocate for providers to proactively engage in discussions with family members as they can know important information regarding patients' medications.

Patient perspectives are critical to inform patient safety efforts. This systematic review identified studies of patient experiences with adverse events. Included studies demonstrate that the types of adverse events patients most often identify are medication errors and suboptimal communication, and that patient demographic characteristics influence the likelihood of reporting these events. Calling for increased use of patient experiences in future studies, the authors suggest that investigations into adverse events are incomplete if patient perspectives are not included. These results demonstrate the ongoing need to enhance patient engagement in safety research. A previous AHRQ WebM&M perspective delves further into engaging patients in safety improvement.

Adverse drug events continue to contribute to preventable errors for both hospitalized and ambulatory patients. In this study conducted in an Australian emergency department, implementation of automated dispensing cabinets for frequently used medications was associated with a decrease in medication preparation and dispensing errors by nurses.

This qualitative study of palliative care recipients, family caregivers, and paid home health staff found that they conceive of safety as encompassing emotional as well as functional safety, and they accept some risk in order to remain in the home environment. This work emphasizes the need for setting-specific patient engagement to tailor safety efforts.

This qualitative study of communication among providers in perioperative care revealed a reliance on written documentation, which was often difficult to find or missing key information, rather than verbal signout. This finding underscores the importance of structured, verbal handoffs to ensure adequate provider communication.

This study used video-reflexive ethnography—a qualitative intervention approach that involves videotaping daily work processes and then using the videos to stimulate further discussion and problem solving—to analyze how clinicians create safe spaces for communication in the busy environment of the intensive care unit.

Many efforts are underway to facilitate involving hospitalized patients in their own care. However, this qualitative study identified many barriers to patient engagement in medication monitoring, ranging from unavailability of clinicians to production pressures that forced patients to be moved from one unit to another.