Patient and family engagement is essential to effective and safe diagnosis. OurDX is a previsit online engagement tool to help identify opportunities to improve diagnostic safety in patients and families living with chronic conditions. In this study, researchers implemented OurDX in specialty and primary care clinics at two academic healthcare organizations and examined the potential safety issues and whether patient/family contributions were integrated into the post-visit notes. Qualitative analysis of 450 OurDX reports found that participants contributed important information about the diagnostic process. Participants with diagnostic concerns were more likely to raise concerns about the diagnostic process (e.g., access barriers, problems with tests/referrals, communication breakdowns), which may represent diagnostic blind spots.

… of or upgrades to new electronic health records (EHR) is a complex process which sometimes results in unforeseen …

… J Am Med Inform Assoc … Patients and families are encouraged … and adult primary care) were invited to complete a survey (OurDX) before their visit to identify their visit … safety through OurDX: a previsit online engagement tool. J Am Med Inform Assoc. Epub 2023 Jan 24 10.1093/jamia/ocad003 …

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Leadership across all levels of a health system plays an important role in patient safety. In … engagement, and healthcare worker well-being. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. Epub 2022 Dec …

… an increasing range of health care situations to address a variety of care needs. This commentary examines the impact … of AI that affect reliability. … Classen DC, Longhurst C, Thomas EJ. Bending the patient safety curve: how much can AI …

… who access their electronic health record (EHR) through a patient portal have identified clinically relevant errors … family engagement in safety. … Bell SK, Bourgeois F, Dong J, et al. Patient identification of diagnostic safety …

The COVID-19 pandemic increased symptoms of physician burnout, including emotional exhaustion, which can increase patient safety risks. This cross-sectional study examined emotional exhaustion among healthcare workers at two large health care systems in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents reported increases in emotional exhaustion in themselves and perceived exhaustion experienced by their colleagues. The researchers found that emotional exhaustion was often clustered in work settings, highlighting the importance of organizational climate and safety culture in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 on healthcare worker well-being.

… J Patient Saf. … Psychological safety (PS) is integral to … asking questions and raising patient safety concerns. A novel PS assessment was administered to over 10,000 … metric for the ability to speak up in healthcare settings. J Patient Saf. 2022;18(6):513-520. …

… J Patient Saf … Striving for “ zero harm ” in healthcare has been advocated as a patient safety goal. In this article, the authors discuss … than performance – goals). … Stockwell DC, Kayes DC, Thomas EJ. J Patient Saf . 2022;18(5):e877-e882. …

Teamwork is an essential component of patient safety.  This cross-sectional study of 50,000 healthcare workers in four large US health systems found that the teamwork climate worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey findings indicate that healthcare facilities with worsening teamwork climate had corresponding decreases in other measured domains, including safety climate and healthcare worker well-being. The researchers suggest that healthcare organizations should proactively increase team-based training to reduce patient harm.

The Partnership for Patients (P4P) program launched hospital engagement networks (HEN) in 2011 to reduce hospital-acquired harms. This study reports on the outcomes of eight conditions from one HEN, Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS). While the results do show a reduction in harms, the authors state earlier claims of improvement may have been overstated due to failure to not adjust for secular improvements. The co-director of Partnership for Patients, Dr. Paul McGann, was interviewed in 2016 for a PSNet perspective.

… J Healthc Qual … Medical errors in the neonatal intensive … patient safety . This children’s hospital implemented a robust process improvement program (RPI, which refers to … including healthcare-acquired infection. … Nether KG,  Thomas EJ, Khan A, et al. Implementing a robust process …

… J Perinatol … Patients in the neonatal intensive care unit … seven days of admission was 6.2%. … Shafer GJ, Singh H, Thomas EJ, et al. Frequency of diagnostic errors in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective cohort study. J Perinatol. Epub 2022 Mar 4. …

… emotional, physical, and financial harm . … Bell SK,  Dong J, Ngo L, et al. Diagnostic error experiences of patients and … health literacy or disadvantaged socioeconomic position in a cross-sectional US population-based survey. BMJ Qual Saf. …

… take contextual factors into consideration. … Ranji SR, Thomas EJ. Research to improve diagnosis: time to study the …

… J Patient Saf … This qualitative study explored the long-term … by patients and families after harmful healthcare events. J Patient Saf. 2021;17(8):e1145-e1151. …

… J Patient Saf Risk Manag … Effective communication between … birth events: experiences of parents and clinicians. J Patient Saf Risk Manag. 2021;26(5):200–206. …

Engaging patients and families in their own care can improve outcomes, safety, and satisfaction. This study brought patients, families, clinicians and experts together to identify patient-reported diagnostic process-related breakdowns. The group identified 7 categories, 40 subcategories, 19 contributing factors and 11 patient-reported impacts. Breakdowns were identified in each step of the diagnostic process.

… “see instructions” errors were most common.  … Morse KE, Chadwick WA, Paul W, et al. Quantifying discharge medication …

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Safety WalkRounds involve health care … climate nine-months after implementation.   … Klimmeck S, Sexton BJ, Schwendimann R. Changes in safety and teamwork … observations to patient safety WalkRounds. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. Epub 2021 Sep 8. …