Increased use of telehealth presents both benefits and potential threats to patient safety. In this study of 4,133 patients, researchers found that orders for colonoscopies or cardiac stress tests and dermatology referrals placed during telehealth visits were less likely to be completed within the designated timeframe compared to those ordered during in-person visits (43% vs. 58%). Not completing test or referrals within the recommended timeframe can increase the risk of delayed diagnoses and patient harm.

The opioid epidemic has prompted national and institutional guidelines for safe opioid prescribing. This paper describes the development, implementation, and sustainment of a toolkit for safer opioid prescribing for chronic pain in primary care. The authors describe organizational, technical, and external barriers to implementation along with attempted solutions and their effects. The toolkit is available as supplemental material.

Patient safety learning laboratories (PSLL) encourage a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach to problem solving. This study reports on how a learning ecosystem supported the success of three distinct PSLLs. Qualitative and quantitative results reveal four types of alignment and supporting practices that contribute to the success of the learning laboratories.

… buy-in on the value of parent engagement. … Khan A, Baird J, Kelly MM, et al. Family safety reporting in medically …

Work conditions can impact clinician satisfaction and the quality and safety of the care they provide. This study sought to identify the combination of systems features (team dynamics, provider-perceived safety culture, patient care coordination) that positively impact work satisfaction in primary care practices. Results showed a strong culture of safety combined with more effective team dynamics were sufficient to lead to improved work satisfaction.

Medical errors are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, and frequently result from potentially preventable human errors associated with poor communication and teamwork. This systematic review included 16 studies that were examined for assessment tools, training interventions, safety culture improvement, and teamwork intervention outcomes. The authors conclude that training staff on teamwork and communication improve the safety culture, and may reduce medical errors and adverse events in the Emergency Department.

Cascades of care (or follow up) on incidental findings from diagnostic tests are common but are not always clinically meaningful. This study reports the results of a nationally representative group of physicians who were surveyed on their experiences with cascades. Almost all respondents had experienced cascades and many reported harms to patients and personal frustration and anxiety that may contribute to physician burnout.

This study in the Health Affairs patient safety theme issue examines the implementation of surgical safety checklists. Checklists have been shown to improve patient outcomes in randomized control trials, but implementation studies have not consistently demonstrated similar improvements. In this statewide initiative, implementation of the checklist varied significantly among sites. Factors associated with more successful implementation included greater leadership participation, frontline engagement, and more frequent activities for all involved groups, including surgeons, nurses, technicians, and administrators. Sites that invested more funding and time also saw greater checklist implementation. The authors conclude that hospitals that participated more did better. Past PSNet interviews with Lucian Leape and David Urbach discussed their perspectives on surgical safety checklists.

Checklists have been shown to improve surgical outcomes in clinical trials, but their effectiveness in real-world settings is variable. This implementation study examined factors related to checklist use in the operating room for crises rather than routine practice. Investigators surveyed individuals who downloaded a checklist from two websites about whether they used a checklist regularly in specific clinical situations. Thorough checklist implementation, leadership support, and dedicated staff training time led to more regular use of the checklist. Conversely, frontline resistance and lack of clinical champions undermined checklist use. The authors conclude that optimizing organizational conditions should increase the use of checklists during crises in operating rooms. Past PSNet interviews with Lucian Leape and David Urbach discussed their perspectives on surgical safety checklists.

High reliability is a goal throughout health care. This commentary describes how lessons from high reliability organizations can be applied to accountable care organizations to enhance quality, reduce costs, and support population health. The authors describe ways to engage organizations in this work through mindfulness, leadership, and research.

Establishing a robust culture of safety, in which all staff feel free to voice concerns without fear of reprisal and leadership explicitly prioritizes safety, is crucial to safety improvement efforts. The most successful safety improvement programs have all explicitly prioritized enhancing safety culture. This study reports on the baseline results of a program that sought to improve surgical safety at hospitals in South Carolina. Safety culture was assessed among operating room personnel in 31 hospitals using a validated instrument. The investigators found a relatively robust association between better perceived safety culture and lower 30-day postoperative mortality. Studies in other clinical settings have found similar results. The hospitals involved in this study subsequently participated in a program to implement the Surgical Safety Checklist, which resulted in a significant improvement in mortality among participating hospitals compared to nonparticipating hospitals. A recent PSNet interview with Dr. Mary Dixon-Woods discussed the evolving concept of safety culture.

A recent AHRQ technical brief on ambulatory safety found that evidence for effective interventions is lacking. This cluster-randomized controlled trial examined whether participation in a multimodal quality improvement intervention enhanced safety processes at primary care clinics compared to usual practice. Using chart review, investigators determined that clinics receiving the intervention—which included a learning network, webinars, in-person meetings, and coaching—improved documentation and patient notification for abnormal test results overall. Also, time between test date and treatment plan was shorter in intervention sites. Through pre–post surveys, they learned that patient perceptions of quality and safety improved modestly for coordination and communication but were otherwise similar between the sites. Staff perceptions of safety and quality were similar pre–post and between intervention and control sites. Barriers to improvement included time and resource constraints, staff turnover, health information technology, and local practice variation. The authors recommend further study to determine the potential for multimodal practice-level interventions to enhance outpatient safety.

This qualitative study used data from free-text survey comments to examine the effectiveness of surgical safety checklist implementation at 11 hospitals. Although most operating room staff viewed the checklist positively, obtaining buy-in for consistent checklist use by all staff remained challenging.

Checklists have been shown to reduce surgical morbidity and mortality in randomized trials, but results of implementation in clinical settings have been mixed. This study reports on a voluntary, statewide collaborative program to implement a surgical safety checklist in South Carolina hospitals. Participating sites undertook a multifaceted process to support checklist implementation and culture change. Cross-institutional educational activities were available to all hospitals in the collaborative. Investigators determined that rates of surgical complications declined significantly in hospitals involved in the collaborative compared with those that did not participate, which had no change in postsurgical mortality over the same time frame. Past PSNet interviews with Lucian Leape and David Urbach discussed their perspectives on surgical safety checklists.

… Commission journal on quality and patient safety … Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Delayed diagnosis of colon cancer due to …

… This observational study examined Medicare's nonpayment policy for conditions such as health …

Prior research has shown that malpractice risk in the outpatient setting is significant and that claims frequently involve missed and delayed diagnoses. This editorial describes lessons learned from the Massachusetts PROMISES (Proactive Reduction of Outpatient Malpractice: Improving Safety, Efficiency, and Satisfaction) project. Funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the PROMISES project involved a multipronged intervention within 16 randomly selected primary care practices to address known areas of risk in ambulatory care, including test result management, referrals, medication management, and communication issues. A previous PSNet perspective discussed how research may help improve the malpractice system.

Although checklists have been shown to improve safety and surgical mortality, they can be difficult to implement, which limits their effectiveness in clinical practice. This study examined whether perceptions of teamwork predicted checklist performance. Trained observers used standardized tools to rate the extent of checklist completion and quality of teamwork. They found that checklists were implemented as intended in only 3% of cases. Surgical teams with better surgeon buy-in to checklists, clinical leadership, communication, and overall teamwork completed more checklist components. Clinical factors, including older patient age and longer duration of surgery, were also associated with performing more of the checklist. The authors suggest that teamwork is critical to checklist implementation. A PSNet interview discussed the challenges of implementing checklists in health care.

… Journal of the American College of Surgeons … J Am Coll Surg … Surgical checklists have been associated …