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.

While the association between clinician burnout and patient safety are not new, the COVID-19 pandemic brought this safety concern back to the forefront. In this study conducted at 60 US Magnet hospitals, nurses and physicians reported high levels of burnout and rated their hospital unfavorably on patient safety. Increased nurse staffing was the top recommendation to reduce burnout with less emphasis on wellness and resilience programs.

‘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.

When serious adverse events such as death are reported, they are typically associated with poor patient safety. In some fields of care, however, such as palliative care, deaths are expected and not necessarily an indicator of poor quality. This commentary describes how serious and non-serious adverse events (SAEs/AEs) are currently defined and reported, the associated challenges, and proposes a new approach to reporting SAE/AE in clinical trials. A decision-tree to determine SAE/AE reporting based on the new proposed approach is presented.

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.

Trigger tools are one method of retrospectively detecting adverse events. In this study, researchers used data from 31 Spanish hospitals to validate a trigger tool in general and gastrointestinal surgery departments. Of 40 triggers, 12 were identified for optimizing predictive power of the trigger tool, including broad spectrum antibiotherapy, unscheduled postoperative radiology, and reintervention.

Failure to communicate abnormal test results to patients can lead to significant health complications and medical malpractice claims. This study aimed to increase patient engagement in asking their provider about previously obtained diagnostic test results. Reminders to follow up with their provider about test results were sent to the patient via the after-visit summary and patient portal. Patients receiving reminders were up to 20 times more likely to ask their providers about their test results, compared to patients who did not receive reminders.

Hospital at Home (HAH), in which patients receive hospital-level care in their own homes, reduces the risk of hospital-acquired conditions such as delirium, especially in older adults. This commentary provides an overview of HAH, recent developments, and associated regulatory, safety, and quality issues.

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.

This study classified flow disruptions affecting the anesthesia team during cardiothoracic surgeries. Disruptions were classified into one of six human factors categories: communication, coordination, equipment issues, interruptions, layout, and usability. Interruptions accounted for nearly 40% of disruptions (e.g., events related to alerts, distractions, searching activity, spilling/dropping, teaching moment).

Massive online open courses (MOOCs) have the ability to reach a broad audience of learners. The Science of Safety in Healthcare MOOC was delivered in 2013 and 2014. At completion of the course, participants reported increased confidence on all six measured domains (teamwork, communication, managing risk, human environment, recognizing and responding, and culture). At 6 months post-completion, the majority agreed the content was useful and positively influenced their clinical practice, demonstrating that MOOCs are an effective interprofessional learning format.

The July effect is a phenomenon that presumably results in poor care due to the annual en masse introduction of new doctors into practice. This commentary outlines factors undermining the safe influx of these new clinicians into active, independent practice. The authors discuss how a systemic approach is required to situate these practitioners to provide the safest care possible.

Clinicians involved in unexpected patient outcomes can experience negative emotions and frequently need access to second victim support programs. This systematic review describing 12 second victim support programs identifies staff benefits, implementation challenges, and experiences of peer supporters. Affected staff and peer supporters reported the benefits of the programs. Challenges included blame culture, limited awareness of program existence, and lack of financial resources. Findings indicate a need for implementing new second victim support programs, promoting current programs, and monitoring peer supporters’ well-being.

… and improved adherence to best-practices . … Geva A, Albert BD, Hamilton S, et al. eSIMPLER: a dynamic, electronic …

Unanticipated adverse events harm not only patients, but also have the potential to cause psychological harm to the healthcare providers involved in the incident. This study investigated how Maryland hospitals currently support “second victims.” Even though all study participants agreed that organizations should offer support programs to second victims, they stated that several barriers exist, including stigma. Future research efforts should involve second victims themselves in order to identify barriers and facilitators, such as safety culture, to the use of organization support programs.

The Resilience in Stressful Events (RISE) program provides peer support for healthcare workers who are involved in an adverse event. RISE program volunteers surveyed in this study reported positive perceptions of program participation and personal empowerment.  

In this editorial, patient safety experts discuss threats to healthcare safety and quality due to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., failures in infection prevention and control, diagnostic errors, issues with laboratory testing) and highlight positive changes and opportunities, such as improved care coordination, supply chain innovations, accelerated learning, expansion of telemedicine, and prioritizing the safety and well-being of health care workers.

This editorial discusses priority areas for maintaining and promoting the well-being of the healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors discuss the importance of providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), supporting basic daily needs (e.g., provision of in-hospital food stores), ensuring frequent and visible communication, supporting mental and emotional well-being, addressing ethical concerns, promoting wellness, and showing gratitude for staff.

This study randomized primary care practices across ten health care systems to evaluate the effectiveness of a multifactorial intervention to prevent falls with injury, which included risk assessment and individualized plans administered by specially trained nurses. The intervention did not result in a significantly lower rate of serious fall injury compared to usual care.