Collective intelligence posits that the judgment (in this case, diagnostic accuracy) of a group of individuals outperforms the judgment of a single individual. This study sought to determine if real-time information-sharing improved not only group diagnostic accuracy, but also diagnostic accuracy of the individuals within the group. Individual accuracy did improve, suggesting real-time information-sharing between physicians could improve diagnostic decision-making in practice, although additional research is required.

Large malpractice claims databases are increasingly used as a proxy to assess the frequency and severity of diagnostic errors. More than 5,300 closed claims with at least one diagnostic error were analyzed. No singular factor was identified; instead multiple contributing factors were implicated along the diagnostic pathway.

Medication errors in ambulatory care settings represent an ongoing patient safety challenge. This study characterizes ambulatory care adverse drug events reported to a large patient safety organization between May 2012 and October 2018. Anticoagulants, antibiotics, hypoglycemics, and opioids were the most commonly involved medication classes. Contributing factors included prescribing errors, failure to review clinical contraindications or drug-drug interactions, and lack of patient education or communication.

Electronic health records (EHR) house and provide access to a plethora of data to inform care and management decisions. This commentary suggests that EHRs have yet to be fully embraced as a tool to proactively identify areas of risk that could lead to legal action.

Patients and families prefer to be told if they experience a medical error. Given that marginalized patients experience medical errors at higher rates, it is important to understand their unique perspectives and preferences towards error disclosure. This systematic review identified 6 studies focused on error disclosure in one of three marginalized populations (older adults, low education attainment, racial and/or ethnic minority).

Analysis of closed malpractice claims can be used to identify potential safety hazards in a variety of clinical settings. This analysis of closed emergency department malpractice claims indicates that diagnostic errors dominate, and clinical judgment and documentation categories continue to be associated with a higher likelihood of payout. Subcategories and contributing factors are also discussed.

Missed or delayed diagnosis in primary care may result in serious complications for patients. This prospective study followed adults presenting to primary care with new or unresolved symptoms for 12 months. 32% of patients received a diagnosis within one month; most of the rest still did not have a diagnosis at 12 months (50%). The authors suggest interventions aimed at improving diagnosis should be system-based, not specific to a single medical issue or population.

Strategies to reduce clinician burnout related to adverse events are critically needed. Physicians in the United States were surveyed on their experiences with adverse events to identify facilitators and barriers to reducing burnout. A common facilitator was peer support, and barriers included shame and a punitive work environment.

Patients and families represent an often untapped resource in identifying errors and adverse events. Using a mobile health tool, pediatric patients and families were encouraged to report safety events that occurred during the child’s hospital stay. These reports were compared with incident reports (IRs) submitted to the internal incident reporting system. Of the 51 potential IR observations, only one had been submitted to the IR system. Notably, differences in the number of reported events varied by race, ethnicity, insurance status, and other marginalized groups, highlighting a need to explicitly engage these populations. 

… practices to ensure equal access to safe telehealth. … Khoong EC,  Sharma AE, Gupta K, et al. The abrupt expansion …

Racial and ethnic inequities are increasingly being linked to health disparities. This study of more than 16,000 patients explored the association between race and ethnicity and blood pressure control. Findings suggest racial and ethnic inequities in treatment intensification may be associated with more than 20% of observed racial or ethnic disparities in blood pressure control.

Race and gender bias in healthcare remains a public health problem. Study participants were assigned to a control (i.e., independent reflection) or intervention (i.e., “egalitarian” information exchange network) group and asked to provide diagnostic and treatment recommendations for standardized patients (a white man or a black woman). Participants in the intervention group were more likely to recommend appropriate care and showed no bias in final recommendations. The authors note that these findings indicate that clinician network interventions might be useful in healthcare settings to reduce disparities in patient treatment.

… and caregiver factors in ambulatory incident reports: a mixed-methods analysis. BMJ Open Qual. 2021;10(3):e001421. …

Diagnostic over- and under-confidence in primary care can result in misdiagnosis, impacting millions of patients every year. This intervention study evaluated the effect of peer input on diagnostic confidence on cases with diagnostic uncertainty. In cases with high diagnostic uncertainly, peer input increased provider confidence.

Ambulatory care settings are receiving increased attention as a focus for patient safety improvements. Using data from a multistate patient safety organization (PSO) database, the researchers sought to characterize patterns and characteristics of patient safety incidents reported in ambulatory care settings. Analyses found that 5.9% of events resulted in severe harm and 1.9% resulted in patient death. Over half of the events were from outpatient subspecialty care; fewer events occurred in home/community (5.2%), primary care (2.1%), or dialysis (2.0%) settings. Medication-related events were most common, followed by clinical deterioration and falls. Predictors of higher harm included diagnostic errors, patient/caregiver challenges, and events occurring in home/community or psychiatric settings. These results can help ambulatory care settings target safety events and develop systems-level prevention strategies.  

This study used direct observation and interviews to assess hazards in the medication use process in a sample of ambulatory patients who predominantly had low health literacy. The investigators found that the outpatient medication use process is fragmented and complex with poor coordination between clinicians, pharmacists, and insurance companies, forcing patients to develop self-management strategies to manage their chronic health conditions.

This study examined the accuracy of using Google Translate to translate 100 actual, deidentified discharge instructions from English to either Spanish or Chinese. The majority of instructions were correctly translated (92% correct in Spanish, 81% correct in Chinese), as assessed by back-translation performed by bilingual human translators. Less than 10% of erroneous translations had potential to cause harm.

… that the collective opinions generated can be trusted. … Fontil V, Radcliffe K, Lyson HC, et al. JAMIA Open. …

… were more likely to report burnout . Participants reported a wide variety of errors; treatment errors were the most … mitigate burnout among second victims are urgently needed. A previous PSNet interview discussed the second victim …

California's Medicaid pay-for-performance program requires safety-net health care systems to report and improve upon diverse ambulatory safety measures. Researchers found that participating safety-net hospitals struggled to report accurate data. Systems had more success improving metrics that placed patients at risk of life-threatening harm when compared to metrics that required longer term follow-up or patient engagement.