Unplanned hospital readmission and 30-day all-cause mortality rates are indicators of hospital safety. This study analyzed the association of these two indicators with in-hospital adverse events (AE) for patients admitted with heart failure. Results suggest patients with heart failure admitted to hospitals with high rates of 30-day all-cause mortality and readmission are at increased risk for in-hospital AE. The authors describe several possible explanations for these findings.

… heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical procedures. … Eldridge N,  Wang Y, Metersky M, et al. Trends in adverse event rates in …

Many interventions targeting healthcare-acquired condition reduction and prevention target a single condition, rather than the risks of multiple conditions. This proof-of-concept study discusses clinician feedback on a proposed dashboard to enhance clinicians’ management combining the risks of multiple conditions (catheter-associated urinary tract infections, pressure injuries, and falls).

Hospital readmission rates are an important indicator of patient safety. This cross-sectional study examined whether patients admitted to hospitals with high readmission rates also had higher risks of in-hospital adverse events. Based on a sample of over 46,000 Medicare patients with pneumonia discharged between July 2010 and December 2019 and linked to Medicare adverse event data, researchers found that patients admitted to hospitals with high all-cause readmission rates were more likely to experience an adverse event during their admission.

The July Effect is a belief that the quality of care delivered in academic medical centers decreases during July and August due to the arrival of new trainees. Using data from the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System, this retrospective cohort, including over 185,000 hospital admissions from 2010 to 2017, found that patients admitted to teaching hospitals in July and August did not experience higher rates of adverse events compared to patients admitted to non-teaching hospitals.

Applying systems engineering strategies from problem analysis through postimplementation evaluation can lead to solutions grounded in actual practice and learning for individuals, teams, and organizations. This commentary discusses the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety learning laboratories initiative. The authors, who serve as program officers and oversee the grants, review lessons learned through experiences of grantees.

… hospital safety practices could reduce readmissions. … Krumholz HM, Wang K, Lin Z, et al. N Engl J Med. 2017;377:1055-1064. …

Simulation training has been increasingly adopted as a valuable teaching tool. This editorial offers insights from program officers at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality regarding questions they consider when deciding on simulation projects to fund. The authors encourage research that could help to formalize the evidence base of this promising learning modality.

… do not lead to increased mortality. A previous WebM&M commentary discussed an incident involving a patient …

This retrospective analysis of Medicare claims data found that the decrease in readmissions following the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program occurred across target conditions and other diagnoses. Hospitals penalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had greater reductions in readmissions for the targeted conditions. These results support the effectiveness of the nonpayment policy.

… following CMS nonpayment policies. A previous WebM&M interview discussed the potential benefits and limitations …

The Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System was developed to track adverse events nationally to support robust safety improvement. This review summarizes the history of the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System and its evolution into a new system that seeks to enhance the standardization and utilization of the collected data.

Readmissions are subject to nonpayment by Medicare, but their use as a marker of quality is controversial. Experts have also raised concerns about the use of in-hospital mortality as a quality measure. Utilizing data from the AHRQ Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, this secondary analysis examined the link between rates of adverse events and rates of readmissions and 30-day mortality for patients treated for acute myocardial infarction in 793 hospitals. Investigators found that hospitals with a greater aggregate rate of adverse events also had higher readmission and mortality rates among patients with acute myocardial infarctions. Although readmission rates and mortality ratios have been criticized as inaccurate measures of the quality of care, the authors conclude that readmission and mortality rates do in fact reflect the quality of care in hospitals. A PSNet interview discussed the intersection of readmissions and quality.

Drug shortages have been a persistent problem for several years and have been shown to affect patient safety. The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012 was intended to address these shortages. This analysis found that while shortages have decreased since the act was passed, problems with drug supply for acute care facilities remain.

Electronic health record (EHR) adoption was widely spurred by an assumption that it would improve patient safety. Although research suggests that EHRs have had an overall positive effect, unexpected consequences have occurred along the way and many problems remain. This retrospective study compared adverse events among patients in hospitals with fully electronic EHRs to those without such EHRs in place. After controlling for patient and hospital characteristics, patients exposed to a fully electronic EHR had 17% to 30% lower odds of having an adverse event. A recent PSNet interview with Dr. Robert Wachter discussed the role of health information technology in patient safety.

Anticoagulation medications are often associated with adverse drug events. This study found that less-than-daily monitoring of anticoagulation in hospitalized patients is associated with more frequent out-of-range values, suggesting that daily monitoring is safer.

The effects of more than a decade of national efforts dedicated to improve patient safety remain largely unclear. This study used the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System (MPSMS) database to assess national trends in adverse event rates between 2005 through 2011 for patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, or conditions requiring surgery. The analysis included a large study sample with more than 60,000 patients across 4372 hospitals. The results show a significant decline in adverse event rates for acute myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure, translating to an estimated 81,000 in-hospital adverse events averted in 2010–2011. However, there were no measurable overall improvements for patients admitted with pneumonia or surgical conditions. Some events, such as pressure ulcers in surgical patients, actually increased despite considerable national attention to these problems. This study suggests that national patient safety initiatives have led to real progress in some areas but have not created across-the-board improvements.

Patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or congestive heart failure (CHF) are more likely to require hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge. Intensive efforts are underway to reduce readmissions in these patients, spurred by federal policies that penalize hospitals with excess readmission rates. However, this survey of nearly 600 hospitals found widely varying implementation of specific strategies to decrease readmissions in these patients, despite nearly all hospitals having declared reducing AMI and CHF readmissions to be a priority. The authors acknowledge that a lack of evidence supporting strategies to reduce readmissions, as well as variability in the underlying causes of readmissions between hospitals, may have influenced which interventions were implemented at different hospitals.

A retrospective chart review revealed that approximately 1 in 8 patients with diabetes was discharged without any antihyperglycemic therapy following acute myocardial infarction. Almost 90% of these omissions lacked justification, suggesting widespread errors in medication reconciliation.

This analysis of incorrect surgical procedures in the Veterans Affairs (VA) system found an overall decline in the number of reported wrong-site, wrong-patient, and wrong-procedure errors compared with the authors' prior study. As in the earlier report, half of the incorrect procedures occurred outside of the operating room. Root cause analyses of errors revealed that lack of standardization and human factors issues were major contributing factors. During the time period of this study, the VA implemented a teamwork training program that has been associated with a significant decline in surgical mortality. The authors propose that additional, focused team training may be one solution to this persistent problem.