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.

Implementing successful interventions to support effective medication reconciliation is an ongoing challenge. The MARQUIS2 study examined whether system- and patient-level interventions plus physician mentors can improve medication reconciliation and reduce medication discrepancies. This analysis based on patient exposure in the MARQUIS2 study found that patient receipt of a best possible medication history (BPMH) in the emergency department and medication reconciliation at admission and discharge were associated with the largest reductions in medication discrepancy rates.

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Safety event reporting is a primary method of gathering data to enhance learning from … full picture of gaps in care that could result in harm. … Gandhi T. Now is the time to routinely ask patients about …

The quality and culture of the health care work environment is known to affect care delivery. This commentary discusses human-centered and participatory design approaches as avenues for developing improvements in clinician well-being that will enhance safety for staff, providers, and patients.

… 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 …

… 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 …

Structured tools are increasingly used to identify diagnostic errors and related harms using electronic health record data. In this study, researchers compared the performance of two validated tools (Safer Dx and the DEER taxonomy) to identify diagnostic errors among patients with preventable or non-preventable deaths. Findings indicate that diagnostic errors and diagnostic process failures contributing to death were higher in preventable deaths (56%) but were also present in non-preventable deaths (17%).

… 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. …

… J Patient Saf … Adverse events can be identified through … sources should be used to detect AE. … Samal L, Khasnabish S, Foskett C, et al. Comparison of a voluntary safety reporting system to a global trigger tool …

… J Healthc Qual … Medical errors in the neonatal intensive … care unit threaten patient safety . This children’s hospital implemented a robust process improvement program … 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 …

Families and caregivers play an important role in ensuring patient safety. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and, to a lesser extent, during surges, family and caregiver visitation was severely restricted. This commentary advocates reassessing risks and benefits of restricted visitation, both during the pandemic and beyond.

… J Patient Saf … Despite the introduction of computerized … to communicate important information which introduces a patient safety risk .  One healthcare system searched … D, Hallisey RK, et al. Improving allergy documentation: a retrospective electronic health record system-wide patient safety initiative. J Patient Saf. 2022;18(1):e108-e114 . …

This qualitative study explored the long-term impacts experienced by patients and family members involved in medical harm events. Participants described psychological, social/behavioral, and financial impacts and more than half reported ongoing physical impacts.

… 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. …

… … Bell SK, Bourgeois F, DesRoches CM, et al. Filling a gap in safety metrics: development of a patient-centred framework to identify and categorise …

… J Patient Saf … The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on … learn from patient safety hazards, including transparency, a culture of safety, and continuous analysis of errors. … Adelman JS, Gandhi TK. COVID-19 and patient safety: time to tap into our …