A study conducted in 2011 concluded that pharmacy students identified more prescribing errors than their medical or nursing counterparts. This study replicates the 2011 study with first- and second-year physician assistant (PA) students. The results suggest PA students, regardless of year, identified prescribing errors at similar rates to medical and nursing students, although identification rates were low for all three student groups.

… J Patient Saf Risk Manag … Research with medical and surgical … safety than about unprofessional behaviors. … Feldman N, Volz N, Snow T, et al. “I’m concerned”: a multi-site assessment of …

Unintentionally retained surgical items (RSI) can have a devastating impact on patient health and safety. One method to reduce the incidence of RSI is radiofrequency (RF) detection. Nearly one million operations in New York state were analyzed for the rate of RSI before and after the use of RF was required and simultaneous TeamSTEPPS training was provided. The incidence of RF-detectable items was significantly reduced, but the rate of non-RF-detectable items was not.

… J Nurs Adm … Organizational safety climate (OSC) has been … teams with and without crew resource management training. J Nurs Adm. 2021;51(11):e20-e26. …

Diagnostic errors can result in increased length of stay and unplanned hospital readmissions. To reduce readmissions, this hospital implemented a diagnostic time-out to increase the frequency of documented differential diagnosis in pediatric patients admitted with abdominal pain. Results showed marginal improvement in quality of differential diagnosis.

Prior research has found that some patients may be at risk for adverse events after discharge from the emergency department (ED). This cohort study analyzed adverse events occurring among patients discharged from the ED with cardiovascular conditions and identified several opportunities for improving safe care, such as adherence to evidence-based clinical guidelines and strengthening dual diagnosis detection.

Diagnostic errors remain an ongoing patient safety challenge and can result in patient harm. This article describes one large pediatric hospital's experience using a systematic methodology to identify and measure diagnostic errors. The quality improvement (QI) project used five domains (autopsy reports, root cause analyses (RCAs), voluntary reporting system, morbidity & mortality conference, and abdominal pain trigger tool) and adjudication by a QI team to identify cases of diagnostic error; Morbidity & mortality conferences, RCAs and abdominal trigger tool identified the majority (91%) of diagnostic errors.   

… J Nurs Adm … Lack of communication and interpersonal dynamics … to rescue, and mortality in inpatient surgical units. J Nurs Adm. 2021;51(1):12-18. Epub 2020/12/06.    …

Failure to rescue – the lack of adequate response to patient deterioration – has been associated with adverse patient outcomes, particularly in acute care settings. This article describes two health systems’ efforts to implement in-hospital Clinical Monitoring System Technology (CMST) which positively impacted failure-to-rescue events. The authors identified barriers and facilitators to CMST use, which informed the development of an implementation toolkit addressing readiness, implementation, patient/family introduction, champions, and troubleshooting. 

Excess workload and burnout among nurses can compromise safe patient care and lead to adverse outcomes. This survey of acute care nurses in Alabama identified high levels of nurse burnout; burnout was a significant predictor of medication administration errors. All types of burnout – personal, work-related, and client-related – were significant predictors of self-reported medication administration errors.  

… N Engl J Med … Structural racism affects both population and … been challenged by mass social movements. … Bailey  ZD, Feldman JM, Bassett MT. How structural racism works - racist policies as a root cause of U.S. racial health inequities. N Engl J Med. …

This study examined the prevalence and risk factors for COVID-19 infection among frontline healthcare personnel who work with COVID-19 patients. Serum specimens were collected from a convenience sample of 3,248 frontline personnel between April 3 and June 19, 2020.  Six percent (6%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; a high proportion of these individuals did not suspect that they had been previously infected. This study highlights the role that asymptomatic COVID-19 infections play and authors suggest that enhanced screening and universal use of face coverings in hospitals are two strategies to reduce COVID-19 transmissions in healthcare settings.

Using a cohort of adults diagnosed with breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer, this study examined the relationship between oncology-specific triggers and mortality. It found that patients with at least one trigger had a higher risk of death than patients without a trigger; this association was strongest for nonmetastatic prostate cancer and nonmetastatic colorectal cancer. Triggers most commonly associated with increased odds of mortality were bacteremia, blood transfusion, hypoxemia and nephrology consultation. These findings support the validity of cancer-specific trigger tool but additional research is needed to replicate these findings.

Research has found that trigger tools perform poorly in cancer care. This cohort study comprised of adult patients undergoing treatment for breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer investigated the feasibility of a cancer-specific claims-based trigger tool to identify patients with potential adverse events. Results found that triggers affected 19% of patients during their initial year in treatment, and that trigger burden varied by disease, stage, and patient demographics. The most prevalent triggers were abnormal lab test results, blood transfusions, orders for non-contrast CT after chest radiation, and hypoxemia.