Unprofessional and disruptive behavior can erode patient safety and safety culture. The Co-Worker Observation System (CORS), a peer-to-peer feedback program previously used with physicians and advance practice providers, was implemented for use with nurses in three hospitals. Reports of unprofessional behavior submitted to the internal reporting system were evaluated by the CORS team, and peer-to-peer feedback was given to the recipient. This pilot study demonstrated that the implementation bundle can be successful with nursing staff.

Research has shown that prescribers who are notified of a patient’s fatal opioid overdose will decrease milligram morphine equivalents (MME) up to 3 months following notification as compared to prescribers who are not notified. This article reports on the same cohort’s prescribing behavior at 4-12 months. Among prescribers who received notification, total weekly MME continued to decrease more than the control group during the 4-12 month period.

Learning from diagnostic error is a complex undertaking. This commentary introduces Measure Dx, a tool providing guidance for health care organizations to identify and evaluate diagnostic errors to support improvement.

Radiological interpretation errors can result in unnecessary additional tests, wrong treatment and delayed diagnosis. This study explored the correlation between neuroradiologists’ diagnostic errors and attendance at institutional tumor boards. Results show that higher attendance at tumor boards was strongly correlated with lower diagnostic error rates. The researchers recommend increased and continuous attendance at tumor boards for all neuroradiologists.

Adverse drug events (ADE) are common and preventable. In this study, hospital pharmacists met face-to-face with prescribing residents to review medications ordered for older adult inpatients. Preventable and unrecognized ADE decreased following implementation. The most common preventable ADE both before and after implementation occurred during the prescribing stage.

Health equity in maternal safety is a major patient safety goal. Researchers interviewed health care professionals, including frontline nurses and physicians, chief medical officers, and quality and safety officers, from high- and low-performing hospitals. Six themes emerged differentiating high and low performers: 1) senior leadership involved in day-to-day quality activities and dedicated to quality improvement, 2) a strong focus on standards and standardized care, 3) strong nurse-physician communication and teamwork, 4) adequate physician and nurse staffing and supervision, 5) sharing of performance data with nurses and other frontline clinicians, and 6) explicit awareness that racial and ethnic disparities exist and that racism and bias in the hospital can lead to differential treatment. PSNet offers a Patient Safety Primer and Curated Library on maternal safety.

Timely and effective feedback regarding diagnostic errors can reduce future misdiagnosis and prevent overtreatment. Pediatric emergency clinicians were asked about their attitudes towards, and effectiveness of, three diagnostic feedback modalities. Case-based feedback from peers was rated as most likely to improve future practice and none of the modalities was rated as providing emotional support.

Opioid overdose and misuse continues to be a major public health concern with numerous policy- and organization-level approaches to encourage appropriate clinician prescribing. A northern California health system studied the effects of three interventions (individual audit feedback, peer comparison, both combined) as compared to usual care at several emergency department and urgent care sites. Peer comparison and the combined interventions resulted in a significant decrease in pills per prescription.

Feedback is an essential component of performance improvement and patient safety. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with emergency medical services (EMS) professionals in the United Kingdom about their perspectives on how feedback impacts patient care and safety. Findings highlight strong desire for feedback and concerns that inadequate feedback could inhibit learning from mistakes, limit professional development, and negatively impact patient safety.

Diagnostic calibration is the relationship between individual confidence in diagnostic decision making and diagnostic accuracy, and it can lead to diagnostic error or overtesting. This study investigated whether feedback would improve general-practice residents’ diagnostic calibration on difficult cases. Results did not show that feedback on diagnostic performance improved diagnostic calibration.

Performance feedback is an essential component of patient safety and quality improvement. In this participatory study, researchers engaged hospitalists in design sessions and surveys to develop a performance dashboard and feedback system. Physicians preferred that the dashboard be used to aid in clinical practice improvement as part of a non-punitive system.

Communicating and reporting patient safety incidents relies on a robust safety culture wherein health care providers feel supported, not blamed, for errors. Using pediatric registered nurses’ responses from the 2016 and 2018 Hospital Survey on Patient Culture, researchers explored (1) associations between the communication of RNs within their teams and the frequency that they reported safety events; (2) associations between RNs’ communication within their health care teams and their perceptions of safety within the hospital unit; and (3) whether RNs’ communication had improved from 2016 to 2018.

Receiving feedback from colleagues may improve clinicians’ diagnostic reasoning skills. By building on existing models such as Safer Dx, and collaborating with professionals outside of the healthcare field, researchers developed the Diagnosis Learning Cycle, a model intended to improve diagnosis through peer feedback.