In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidelines for safe opioid prescribing for chronic pain. Based on an updated evidence review, the CDC has revised the guidelines and released the Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain - United States, 2022, include recommendations for outpatient acute, subacute, and chronic opioid use. The twelve recommendations fall into four broad categories: determining whether or not to initiate opioids for pain; selecting opioids and determining opioid dosages; deciding duration of initial opioid prescription and conducting follow-up; and assessing risk and addressing potential harms of opioid use. The CDC will update and develop tools and resources to support dissemination of these guidelines. The recommendations do not apply to pain related to sickle cell disease or cancer or to patients receiving palliative or end-of-life care, or for patients in the emergency department or admitted to the hospital.

This nationwide survey of U.S. adults found that many respondents (40.9%) have avoided routine, urgent and emergent medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Avoidance of urgent or emergency care was significantly higher among unpaid caregivers for adults; persons with underlying medical conditions; persons with health insurance; non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, or Latino adults; young adults; and persons with disabilities.

This report describes an outbreak of COVID-19 among residents at one skilled nursing facility in Los Angeles between March 28 and April 23, 2020 and highlights the high asymptomatic prevalence of COVID-19 and unique risk to residents and staff at long-term care facilities. Authors emphasize that universal and serial RT-PCR testing, rapid isolation, and cohorting can disrupt transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Maternal safety is a critical concern in health care, and prior studies have discussed racial and ethnic disparities in patient safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined trends in pregnancy-related deaths between 2011 and 2015. This analysis found that black women had rates of maternal mortality 3.5 times that of white women; Native American/Alaska Native women had rates 2.5 times higher than white women. About 60% of deaths were deemed preventable, and leading causes included cardiovascular events such as venous thromboembolism, infection, and hemorrhage. The study team recommends implementing interventions at health system, provider, community, and patient levels to prevent maternal mortality. A recent Annual Perspective on maternal safety touched on the persistently higher death rates among black women and discussed national initiatives to improve outcomes in maternity care.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report provides drug and opioid overdose death figures for 2016. The rate of overdose deaths continues to rise, with the largest increase due to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. The report calls for enhancing prevention and response measures, including the use of naloxone.

Clinical decision support is a widely recommended patient safety strategy. This study examined whether a mobile application created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improved clinician decision-making about anticoagulation test ordering for simulated case vignettes. Each participating physician completed a series of vignettes; half used the application and half did not. When using the application, physicians demonstrated greater diagnostic accuracy and confidence, and they needed less time to complete each vignette. The authors suggest that mobile applications may be useful for providing decision support.

Unsafe injection practices in health care settings have led to more than 50 disease outbreaks in the past 20 years. In this cross-sectional, voluntary survey across 8 states, 12% of responding physicians stated that needles were reused between patients in their workplace. Nearly 8% of physicians thought this was an acceptable practice. The authors discuss implications for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's One & Only safe injection campaign.

Health care–associated infection is a persistent patient safety problem. This website provides resources related to a national health care–associated infection and blood safety error monitoring program that allows organizations to identify areas of weakness and track the impact of improvements.