Racial and ethnic minoritized patients frequently have poorer postoperative outcomes. The hospital in this study found the opposite and sought the perspectives of minority and non-minority patients to explore potential contributing factors. Both groups of patients described positive communication with nurses and physicians, trust in the team, and family support. Only one unique factor came up for the ethnic minority patients: having someone, an interpreter, accompany them to the operating room made them feel safe.

… Br J Anaesth … A necessary part of successful implementation of … guidelines. Results of guideline use were mixed . … Emond Y, Calsbeek H, Peters YAS, et al. Increased adherence to …

… Int J Qual Health Care … Research has identified variations in … networks may reduce variations. … Atsma F,   Elwyn G, Westert G. Understanding unwarranted variation in clinical practice: a focus on network effects, reflective medicine and learning …

Auditing for compliance with safety practices is performed frequently in the health care setting, both for learning and feedback as well as for regulatory purposes. In this survey study involving boards of directors and hospital leaders from 89 acute care hospitals in the Netherlands, researchers sought to identify factors for effective auditing and provide suggestions for how hospital boards can use such auditing practices to inform governance.

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … In health care, executive walk rounds … frontline staff. Although prior research has demonstrated a positive impact of walk rounds on safety culture in the …

This review examined the evidence base for reducing adverse events in hospitals. Investigators found sufficient evidence to support implementation of certain types of interventions, such as rapid response teams to reduce cardiac arrest and mortality rates, bundles and checklists to mitigate hospital-acquired infections, and pharmacist interventions to decrease adverse drug events. However, the overall evidence base for many of the patient safety interventions used by hospitals is weak.

… BMJ open … BMJ Open … Detection of safety hazards remains a challenge. This systematic review examined record review as a way to identify adverse events. Consistency of event … authors recommend formal validation of record review as a method to detect adverse events. …

This systematic review revealed that limited evidence exists exploring handoffs from intensive care units to general wards, and most of the studies identified were of low quality. Two promising interventions include employing liaison nurses working across multiple settings and structured communication, which has been shown to improve handoffs. The authors advocate for these interventions to be tested widely in rigorous studies to determine their effectiveness.

… reported safety incidents in the perioperative setting at a Dutch university hospital. Over 3 years, a total of 2563 incidents were reported—roughly half were …

In this survey study, one-third of respondents reported an experience with an impaired or incompetent colleague within the last year. One limitation to the survey findings was the low 28% response rate, but the authors note that even if all non-respondents had no such encounters, the results suggest at least 9% of health care professionals have dealt with impaired or incompetent colleagues.

… result in longer hospitalizations . This Dutch study used a national database to examine whether unexpectedly long … work is required to validate this measure, it may fill a need as a measure of patient safety that allows comparisons between …

… that impede progress in enhancing care transitions. A recent systematic review identified promising strategies …