The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed healthcare delivery and impacted the ways healthcare teams function. Using interprofessional focus groups, this study explored the perspectives of medical intensive care unit (MICU) team members on the role of TeamSTEPPS® during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants discussed how TeamSTEPPS® impacted teamwork and communication through shared mental models, trust, role definition, and effective briefing/debriefing and transitions of care strategies. Participants also identified several challenges to TeamSTEPPS® implementation related to the MICU environment, the ongoing pandemic, power dynamics, and patient acuity.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented numbers of patients seen in the emergency department (ED), some who had COVID-19, some who had a different diagnosis, and some who had both. This study analyzes patients who presented to the ED with COVID-19 and signs of another diagnosis that was missed. Approximately one-third of patients with a second concurrent diagnosis experienced a diagnostic delay. Factors that may have influenced the missed diagnosis include ED overcrowding and anchoring heuristics.

In situ simulation is a valuable way to uncover latent safety threats (LTS) when implementing new workflows or care locations. This study reports on one New York state emergency department’s in situ simulation of airway control for COVID-19 patients. Across three cycles of Plan-Do-Study-Act, numerous LSTs were identified and resolved. Quarterly airway management simulations have continued and have expanded to additional departments and conditions, suggesting the sustainability of this type of quality improvement project.

Due to the infectious and deadly nature of COVID-19, heath care facilities were forced to change many of their person-centered policies, including restriction on visits from family and friends. This review highlights factors that impacted hospitalized patients during COVID-19. Thirty-two studies were identified and classified into three main factors: concern about the patient’s well-being during hospitalization, communication and interaction between patients, families, and care team, and the impact on the health care organization.

The COVID-19 pandemic extended face-masking requirements from healthcare providers to the general public and patients. This review summarizes the challenges mask wearing poses to the general public. Challenges include discomfort, communication issues, especially for people with hearing loss, and skin irritation. Despite these issues, the authors state the benefits outweigh the risks of masks and appropriate education may improve mask use.

Remote triage allows patients to receive guidance about whether to seek care and, if required, what level of care. This review of remote triage focuses exclusively on tele-triage studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The studies reported on five broad outcome categories (access to care, triage rates, patient safety, post-triage clinical outcomes, and patient satisfaction) with highly positive outcomes.

The redeployment of clinicians at the beginning of the COVID-19 public health emergency necessitated rapid training of staff, particularly those assigned to the intensive care unit (ICU). This review identified effective in-situ simulations that could be used in ICUs to restore and sustain patient safety following the COVID-19 pandemic. The in-situ simulations were able to detect latent safety threats and improve patient safety culture, interprofessional communication, and system organization.

Speaking up about safety concerns is an important component of safety culture. In this study, nurses in a variety of fields shared their experiences with speaking up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three themes emerged: the ability to speak up or not, anticipated consequences of speaking up, and responses, or lack thereof, from managers.

Negative emotions can adversely impact perception of both patient safety and personal risks. In this study, emergency nurses were surveyed about their emotions (e.g., afraid, calm), emotional suppression and reappraisal behaviors, and perceived risk of personal and patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses reported feeling both positive and negative emotions, but only negative emotions were significantly associated with greater perception of risk.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted healthcare delivery and raised concerns about exacerbating existing patient safety challenges. Based on incident reporting data from three large US academic medical centers from January 2020 through December 2021, researchers found that patient safety event rates did not increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they did observe a relationship between staffing levels during the pandemic and patient safety event rates.

Remote delivery of care, such as telehealth and e-prescribing, increased sharply at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid review was conducted to determine the types and frequency of medication safety incidents associated with remote delivery of primary care prior to the pandemic. Fifteen articles were identified covering medication safety and e-prescribing; none of these studies associated medication safety and telehealth.

COVID-19 changed the way care is delivered to hospitalized patients and resulted in new categories and themes in patient safety reporting. This study used machine learning to group of more than 2,000 patient safety event (PSE) reports into eight clinically relevant themes, including testing delays, diagnostic errors, pressure ulcers, and falls.

Long COVID-19 can be challenging to diagnose. Using electronic health record (EHR) data from patients receiving care in the Department of Veterans Affairs, this qualitative study explored the clinical diagnosis and management of long COVID symptoms. Two themes emerged – (1) diagnostic uncertainty about whether symptoms were due to long COVID, particularly given the absence of specific clinical markers and (2) care fragmentation and poor care coordination of post-COVID-19 care processes.

The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging impacts on care delivery and patient safety. This study examined the relationship between critical care clinician experiences related to patient safety during the pandemic and COVID-19 caseloads during the pandemic. Findings suggest that as COVID-19 caseloads increased, clinicians were more likely to perceive care as less safe.