Understanding the influence of human factors on team and system performance can help safety professionals identify opportunities for improvement. In this study, researchers used a large, centralized incident reporting database in the United Kingdom to examine the human factors contributing to non-procedural endoscopy-related patient safety incidents. Based on Human Factors Analysis and Classification System coding, decision-based errors were the most common factor contributing to incidents, but other contributing factors were also identified, including lack of resources and ineffective team communication.

Shortfalls in electronic health record (EHR) interoperability can threaten patient safety. Chief clinical information officers (CCIOs) participating in semi-structured interviews highlighted the ways in which limited EHR interoperability adversely impacts patient health and safety by hindering care coordination and creating inefficient care processes. Participants noted that solutions are necessary at both the technical (e.g., user-centered design) and policy levels.

Requiring a prescriber to include an indication for a medication can reduce the risk of wrong-patient orders and improve antimicrobial and opioid stewardship. This review identified 21 studies describing interventions to encourage prescribers to include indications for medications. In addition to patient safety benefits, several risks and drawbacks were uncovered, such as potential loss of patient privacy or alert fatigue.

Patient and family engagement in safety is a priority for the UK’s National Health Service. This study asked patients in three hospital wards (geriatrics, elective surgery, maternity) how they conceptualize patient safety. Responses described what made them “feel safe” in their experiences with the organization, staff, the patients themselves, and family/carers.

Electronic health records (EHR) systems frequently interact with EHRs in other organizations, between clinical settings (e.g., in-patient and out-patient), or with devices (e.g., smart pumps). In this review, 12 studies were identified that examined the effect of EHR interoperability on patient safety. While EHR interoperability was shown to improve patient safety, outcome measure heterogeneity limits measuring true effects.

Patient use of digital and online symptom checkers is increasing, but formal validation of these tools is lacking. This systematic review identified ten studies assessing symptom checkers evaluating a variety of conditions, including infectious diseases and ophthalmic conditions. The authors concluded that the diagnostic and triage accuracy of symptom checkers varies and has low accuracy.

As patients increasingly access their electronic health records, they often identify errors requiring correction. This survey of 445 patients in the United Kingdom found that the majority of patients are willing and able to identify and respond to errors in their electronic health records, but information-related and systems-related barriers (e.g., limited understanding of medical terminology, poor information display) disproportionately impact patients with lower digital health literacy or language barriers.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rapid transition of healthcare from in-person to remote and virtual care. This review assessed the safety and effectiveness of pulse oximetry in remote patient monitoring (RPM) of patients at home with COVID-19. Results show RPM was safe for patients in identifying risk of deterioration. However, it was not evident whether remote pulse oximetry was more effective than other virtual methods, such as virtual visits, monitoring consultations, or online or paper diaries.

Improving patient safety is a global goal. This literature review explored patient safety interventions focused on people living in fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable settings. Studies were generally from lower and lower-middle income countries and focused primarily on strengthening infection prevention and control; however, there is a call for more attention on providing patient safety training to healthcare workers, introducing risk management tools, and reducing preventable harm during care delivery.

Medication errors during pediatric resuscitation are common. Using video recordings of simulated pediatric resuscitations, the researchers explored deviations in care related to the delivery of intravenous medicine. Findings suggest that deviations play a crucial role in intravenous medication administration errors, and deviations were more likely to occur during the use of an online injectable medicine guideline.

This survey of individuals living in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, and Germany identified an increased use of virtual primary care services – such as telephone or video consultation, remote triage, and secure messaging systems – since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents reported that virtual technologies positively impacted multiple dimensions of care quality, including timeliness, safety, patient-centeredness, and equity.

This cross-sectional study conducted from March to June 2020 measured anxiety, depression, and burnout in clinicians working in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Singapore. Approximately 70% of respondents reported feeling anxious, depressed and/or burnt out. Burnout was significantly inversely correlated with being tested for COVID-19 and perceiving high levels of safety. These findings highlight the importance of supporting staff well-being and proactive COVID-19 testing.

Planned and unplanned electronic heath record (EHR) downtime can have a negative effect on patient safety. This commentary recommends training and education for frontline healthcare workers to help manage cybersecurity attacks in health care. Interventions should be simple and easy to implement and could be based on lessons learned in other areas of patient safety, such as hand hygiene.

… access to their health records. … Freise L, Neves AL, Flott K, et al. Assessment of patients' ability to review …

This study used the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on safety culture at a large UK teaching hospital compared to baseline scores collected in 2017. Overall, respondents reported more positive perceptions of safety; training and support for redeployment were associated with higher perceptions of safety. However, the analysis identified a significant decrease in error reporting after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This systematic review evaluated the impact of providing patients with access to electronic health records (EHR) on measures of quality of care (i.e., patient-centeredness, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, equity, and safety). Meta-analysis found that sharing EHRs with patients is effective in reducing HbA1c levels; the included studies generally found positive effects on patient-centeredness, health outcomes, and adherence to preventative services. However, the authors concluded that more methodologically robust studies are necessary to quantitatively assess the impact of sharing EHRs with patients.  

An analysis of over 500 survey responses of healthcare professionals working in patient safety education in the United Kingdom explored facilitators and barriers to effective safety education. Interactive and experience-focused (e.g., simulations) learning were identified as ideal learning modalities; learning was most effective when combined with standardized methods and assessments, dedicated funding, and a culture encouraging transparency and speaking up. Common barriers to effective education cited by survey respondents included staffing and workload pressures, lack of accessibility (due to inconvenient timing, location or unavailable technology) and lack of awareness and buy-in for the importance of patient safety education.

This article reviewed 74 academic and 10 policy resources, as well as interviewed 13 experts, to understand how to effectively integrate patient-centric complaint handling with quality monitoring and improvement. Findings highlight the need for standardized methods to use and report complaints data, novel policy strategies, and analysis strategies to generate actionable learning insights and translation into quality improvement by affecting leadership and safety culture are discussed.

This exploratory systematic review aimed to describe the state of the research on patient safety in inpatient mental health settings. Authors included 364 papers, representing 31 countries and data from over 150,000 participants. The existing research base was categorized into ten broad safety categories – interpersonal violence, coercive interventions, safety culture, harm to self, safety of the physical environment, medication safety, unauthorized leave, clinical decision making, falls, and infection prevention/control; papers were of varying quality with the majority of papers assessed as “fair”. The authors note that several areas of patient safety in inpatient mental health are particularly understudied, such as suicide, as the review only yielded one study meeting inclusion criteria.