Current Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty hour regulations limit resident work hours (no more than 80 hours per week or 24-28 consecutive hours on duty) in an effort to improve both resident and patient safety. This nationally representative survey found that over 90% of US adults disagree with the current duty hour policies, with 66% of respondents supporting additional limits on duty hours (to no more than 40 hours per week or 12 consecutive hours).

Characteristics inherent to the emergency department (ED), such as overcrowding and unfamiliar patients, make it susceptible to errors. This article describes a novel process for identification of ED errors by adding the question, "Would you have done something differently?" to the chart review process. Adding this question and requiring a detailed explanation of what they would have done differently allowed for differentiation between a true medical error and a judgment call that coincides with an adverse event. Near misses, adverse events, and adverse events attributable to error were significantly higher when reviewers would have done something differently.

Potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) are a known contributor to patient harm in older adults. In contrast to most studies of PIM in patients with comorbid conditions or residing in hospitals or nursing homes, this study evaluated the impact of PIM use in community-dwelling older adults without significant disability. Participants with at least one PIM were at increased risk of physical disability and hospitalization over the study period (8 years) than those not taking any PIM. However, both groups had similar rates of death.

Preventable harm continues to occur in high-risk care environments such as the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU). In this survey of 266 clinicians within a large pediatric healthcare system, 42% reported experiencing psychological distress after an adverse event, 22% reported absenteeism and 23% reported considering leaving the ICU. After involvement in an adverse event, respondents said that they would prefer peer support and the ability to step away from the unit to recover.

Medication administration is a complex process and is a common source of preventable patient harm. This retrospective chart review of 145 surgical patients over a two-month period found that 98.6% of cases involved a potential medication error, most frequently due to potential dose omissions and involving vasopressors, opioids, or neuromuscular blockers.

Diagnostic errors remain a major healthcare concern. This study was a retrospective record review of 882 pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients to identify diagnostic errors using the Revised Safer Dx tool. Diagnostic errors were found in 13 (1.5%) patients, most commonly associated with atypical presentation and diagnostic uncertainty at admission.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in the United States limits resident physicians' workweek to 80 hours. Several studies have investigated the association between first year residents (i.e., interns, PGY1), worked hours and patient safety. This study includes residents beyond the first year (i.e., PGY2+). Nearly 5,000 PGY2+ residents reported the number of hours worked, patient safety outcomes, and resident health and outcomes. Working more than 60 hours in a week significantly increased the risk of a medical error resulting in patient death. The authors suggest weekly workweek limits should be significantly reduced, such as they are in the United Kingdom.

Fatigue and sleep deprivation among healthcare workers can increase the risk of errors. This prospective study including 60 attending surgeons from departments of surgery or obstetrics and gynecology at eight hospitals found that sleep deficiency was not associated with greater numbers of errors during procedures performed the next day. However, non-technical skill performance, situational awareness, and decision making were adversely associated with sleep deficiency.  

Human factors play an important role in contributing to and preventing adverse events. This study found that integrating human factors into a new root cause analysis process led to an increase in the number of strong interventions implemented after adverse events.

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) are a target of safety improvement initiatives, as they are common and harmful. This guideline provides an update on recommended steps for organizations to support the implementation of CLASBI reduction efforts.

Diagnostic errors can be identified by measuring concordance of initial and final diagnosis, for instance admission and discharge diagnoses. In this study, researchers developed and tested an automated trigger system to determine concordance between pairs of diagnoses. In comparison to the reference standard (concordance determined by experts) the automated system performance was excellent.

In 2011, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) introduced a 16-hour shift limit for first-year residents. Recent studies found that these duty hour requirements did not yield significant differences in patient outcomes and the ACGME eliminated the shift limit for first-year residents in 2017. To assess the impact of work-hour limits on medical errors, this study prospectively followed two cohorts of resident physicians matched into US residency programs before (2002-2007) and after (2014-2016) the introduction of the work-hour limits. After adjustment for potential confounders, the work-hour limit was associated with decreased risk of resident-reported significant medical errors (32% risk reduction), reported preventable adverse events (34% risk reduction), and reported medical errors resulting in patient death (63% risk reduction).

Stewardship interventions seek to optimize use of healthcare services, such as diagnostic tests or antibiotics. This article reports findings from a 14-site multidisciplinary collaborative evaluating pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) blood culture practices before and after implementation of a diagnostic stewardship intervention. Researchers found that rates of blood cultures, broad-spectrum antibiotic use, and central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) were reduced postintervention.

Analyzing reported errors and adverse events can help identify areas of concern needing improvement. Errors and/or adverse events occurring in one emergency department (ED) were classified into one of three groups (attributed to residents only, attendings only, or both), and into five further categories of event types (systems, documentation, diagnostic, procedural, and treatment).  Most errors were attributed to both residents and attendings, and treatment errors were the most common error type.

Checklists are increasingly used to improve diagnosis by supporting clinical decision making and ensuring that all possible diagnoses are considered. This study explored the effect of a prompt to generate alternative diagnoses versus a differential diagnosis checklist on diagnostic accuracy among medical students completing computer-generated patient cases. The researchers found that the checklist improved diagnostic accuracy compared to a prompt, but only if the checklist included the correct diagnosis; if the correct diagnosis was not included on the checklist, diagnostic accuracy was slightly reduced.  

Patient falls represent a significant cause of patient harm. While most research on falls focus on the in-patient setting, this study reviewed research evidence and findings from environmental assessments to provide recommendations for reducing risk of falls in the pediatric ambulatory care setting. Three categories of barriers and interventions were identified: equipment and furniture, environment, and people.

Research has found that families and caregivers play a key role in identifying and preventing patient safety events.  Based on a national sample of hospitals, this study explored the impact of hospital visitation restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic on patient experience and safety outcomes. Results indicate that hospitals with closed visitations experienced larger performance deficits across measures of medical staff responsiveness, fall rates, and sepsis rates.

This international qualitative study explored strategies employed by nurse managers and directors to prevent missed nursing care. Most strategies, including staffing ratios, communication, and empowering nurse leaders, required complex interventions at the system level, indicating missed nursing care is not merely a nursing issue. Nurse managers play a key role in implementing strategies at the nursing and hospital level.