True partnership with patients and families in safety work is an important yet elusive goal. This commentary outlines elements supporting engagement as part of an ambitious global plan and awareness campaign to ensure medical error reduction efforts are fully informed and enriched through the application of the patient and family experience in health care.

Health information technology (HIT) has improved many aspects of patient safety, but poor design can result in patient harm. This commentary describes how context influences vendor, organization, and user understanding of HIT-related errors and proposes system-level solutions, in particular a focus on user-centered design.

Structured handoffs are recognized as a method to ensure that complete, accurate information is shared between teams. This article describes the impact of the Handoffs and Transitions in Critical Care (HATRICC) study on accuracy and completeness of handoff before and after implementation of a structured handoff tool. Post-intervention, the accuracy and completeness of handoffs improved. Omissions, mortality, and length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay were reported in a 2019 study.

Patient safety can be improved when all staff feel empowered to speak up about errors. In this systematic review, the authors identified 11 studies on the effectiveness of trainings to increase nurses' assertiveness to report medical errors. Interventions resulted in significant improvement in nurses' speaking up behavior, but not their attitude or confidence after training. Structured content, use of multiple teaching approaches, and adequate training time were critical to significant improvement.

Health systems seeking to improve patient safety culture (PSC) implement myriad of educational programs for their staff. This review identified 16 studies of PSC education programs that included before and after surveys or intervention and control groups. Results were generally positive, but repeated trainings may be needed to sustain the change. Additionally, based on the reporting using the AHRQ Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS), a culture of blame remained a pervasive problem despite improvements in other components of patient safety culture in many hospitals.

‘Second victim’ is controversial term used to describe health care professionals who experience continuing psychological harm after involvement in a medical error or adverse event. In this study, an expert panel reviewed existing definitions of ‘second victim’ in the literature and proposed a new consensus-based definition.

Electronic health record (EHR) implementation can contribute to safe care. This study examined the impact of EHR meaningful use performance thresholds on patient safety events. Researchers found that neither full EHR implementation nor achieving meaningful use thresholds were associated with a composite patient safety score, suggesting that hospitals may need to explore ways to better leverage EHRs and as well other strategies to improve patient safety, such as process improvement and staff training.

Simulation training is used to improve technical and nontechnical skills among healthcare teams. This study evaluated the impact of a one-hour interdisciplinary in situ simulation training on code response, teamwork, communication and comfort during intraoperative resuscitations. After simulation training, researchers noted improvements in technical skills of individuals and teams (e.g., CPR-related technical skills).

Black and brown patients have experienced disproportionately poorer outcomes from COVID-19 infection as compared with white patients. This study found that patients who identified as Asian, Black, or Hispanic may not have received timely diagnosis or treatment due to inaccurately measured pulse oximetry (SpO2). These inaccuracies and discrepancies should be considered in COVID outcome research as well as other respiratory illnesses that rely on SpO2 measurement for treatment.

Deprescribing is one intervention to reduce the risk of adverse drug events, particularly in older adults and people taking five or more medications. In this cluster randomized trial, older adults (≥65 years) taking at least five medications at hospital admission were randomly assigned to intervention (personalized reports of deprescribing opportunities) or control. Despite an increase in deprescribing in both groups, there was no difference in adverse drug events or adverse drug withdrawal events.

Prescribing potentially inappropriate medications (such as antihistamines, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxants) can lead to adverse health outcomes. The Enhancing Quality of Prescribing Practices for Older Adults in the Emergency Department (EQUIPPED) program is a multicomponent intervention intended to reduce potentially inappropriate prescribing among older adults who are discharged from the emergency department. Twelve months after implementation at three academic health systems, the EQUIPPED program significantly reduced overall potentially inappropriate prescribing at one site; the proportion of benzodiazepine prescriptions decreased across all sites.

In this qualitative study, researchers explore physician, nurse, and patient perspectives about what features constitute “good” and “poor” care episodes. Participants highlighted the importance of quickly identifying and responding to errors and failures as one key component of good quality care.

Errors and near misses reported via incident reporting systems can highlight emerging patient safety concerns; however, rates of reporting remain low. In this comparison study of web-based and interactive voice response systems (IVRS), the mean number of reports was higher for IVRS and length of time to complete the report was lower.

Hospital adverse events are common and can contribute to serious patient harm. This systematic review included 94 studies (representing 590 million admissions from 25 countries) examining trends in hospital adverse events from 1961 to 2014. Findings indicate that hospital adverse events have increased over time and that over half are considered preventable.

… learning format. … Gleason KT, Commodore-Mensah Y, Wu AW, et al. Massive open online course (MOOC) learning …

Overdiagnosis of breast cancer and the resulting overtreatment can cause physical, emotional, and financial harm to patients. Analysis of observational data and modelling indicates overdiagnosis accounts for less than 10% of invasive breast cancer in patients aged 50-69. Understanding rates of overdiagnosis can assist in ascertaining the net benefit of breast cancer screening.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many aspects of health care delivery and has placed unprecedented pressure on health care workers. This consensus statement, based on input from an international panel of individuals with expertise in health leadership, health care, and public health, outlines 10 imperatives to guide health and public leaders during the post emergency stage of the pandemic. Imperatives addressed in the framework include supporting staff well-being and psychological health, preparing for future emergencies, managing the backlog of delayed care, and the importance of sustaining learning, innovations and collaborations that arose during the pandemic.

… these practitioners to provide the safest care possible. … Wu AW, Vincent C, Shapiro DW, et al. Mitigating the July …