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.

Establishing errors as learning opportunities is critical for encouraging improvement. This commentary introduces the concept of a growth mindset that views failures as a chance to develop and enhance individual skills. The authors recommend strategies to embed this mindset at the organizational level and they advocate for research to examine the effectiveness of these approaches.

In this analysis of nearly 200,000 electronic prescriptions, more than 20% were not filled by the patient. This phenomenon, termed primary medication non-adherence, was particularly common for medications for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.