Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems can prevent medication ordering and dispensing errors. This pre-post study compared medication safety outcomes for paper-based prescribing versus CPOE-based prescribing among pediatric patients at one German hospital. The researchers found that CPOE implementation resulted in fewer potentially harmful medication errors.

For incidents to be properly addressed, incident reports must be appropriately identified and categorized by safety managers. This study compared the categorization of incidents as involving health information technology (HIT) or not involving HIT by specialists trained in HIT and patient safety and safety managers trained in traditional methods of health safety. Safety managers only agreed with the HIT specialist classification 25% and 75% of the time on incidents involving or not involving HIT, respectively. Increased education for safety managers on the interaction of HIT and patient safety may result in better classification of HIT-related incidents.

Emergency room crowding is a persistent factor that degrades safety for patients of all ages. This collection provides background, best practices, and recommendations to reduce emergency department crowding and its negative impact on pediatric care. The publications examine factors that influence crowding and improvement at the input, departmental, and hospital/outpatient stages of emergency care.

Children with complex medical conditions are particularly vulnerable to medication errors. This article describes the development and implementation of a pharmacy-led medication rounding care model for children with medical complexity wherein clinicians and pharmacists conduct weekly reviews of all patient medications using a standardized checklist.

I-PASS, a structured hand-off tool, can reduce preventable adverse events during transitions of care. Previously published studies have shown that Patient and Family-Centered (PFC) I-PASS rounds reduced preventable and non-preventable adverse events (AE) in hospitalized children. This study presents additional analysis, comparing AE rates in children with complex chronic conditions (CCC) to those without. Results show a reduction in AE in both groups, with no statistically significant differences between the groups, suggesting PFC I-PASS may be generalizable to broader groups of patients without needing modification.

Trigger tools are widely used for detecting potential adverse events among adult and pediatric inpatients. This article describes the development of a pediatric triggers program that can identify potential adverse events in near real-time to facilitate appropriate preventative measures. The tool includes criteria from the IHI Global Trigger Tool as well as novel triggers (such as pain reassessment time, hospital readmissions, and suspected sepsis). The trigger team created a process for linking triggers to the organizational incident reporting system based on specific criteria (to reduce false-positive reports). The trigger team is continuously developing and refining triggers based on stakeholder input.

Retrospective error detection methods, such as trigger tools, are widely used to uncover the incidence and characteristics of adverse events (AE) in hospitalized children. This review sought AEs identified by three trigger tools: Global Trigger Tool (GTT), the Trigger Tool (TT) or the Harvard Medical Practice Study (HMPS) method. Results from the trigger tools were widely variable, similar to an earlier review in adult acute care, and suggest the need for strengthening reporting standards.

Pediatric patients are particularly vulnerable to medication errors. This cluster randomized controlled trial examined the short- and long-term impacts of an electronic medication management (eMM) system implemented at one pediatric referral hospital in Australia. Findings suggest that eMM implementation did not reduce medication errors in the first 70 days of use, but researchers observed a decrease in medication errors one year after implementation, suggesting long-term benefits.

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the way healthcare teams functions. This article describes the implementation of a hospital-wide COVID-19 clinical event debriefing program, which encouraged care team members to reflect on what went well and what could be improved upon during care encounters with patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Qualitative synthesis of 31 debriefings highlighted issues with personal protective equipment, confusion around team roles, and the importance of both intra-team communication and situational awareness.

Psychological safety is a cornerstone of high reliability organizations (HROs). This children’s hospital developed two scales (trust in team members and trust in leadership) and one composite measure (local learning) to measure staff psychological safety and evaluate the effectiveness of their transition to high reliability. More than 4,500 health system staff completed the survey; results indicate the two scales are strongly associated with the composite measure.

Debriefing after significant clinical events facilitates team-based communication, learning, and support. This study compared two post-resuscitation debriefing tools (Debriefing In Situ Conversation after Emergent Resuscitation Now [DISCERN] and Post-Code Pause [PCP]) following any intubation, resuscitation, or serious/unanticipated patient outcome in a children’s hospital. PCP was found to provide more emotional support and clinical learning, but there were no differences in the remaining categories.

Errors during the discharge process can lead to return visits and adverse health outcomes. This article describes the implementation of a new standardized discharge process (including a new checklist, provider huddle, and scripted caregiver education) at one children’s hospital. Over a 19-month period, implementation of the revised discharge process led to the elimination of preventable, discharge-related serious safety events and did not result in increased length-of-stay or return visits.

Adverse events in pediatric emergency departments (ED) are rare, but largely preventable. This study examined characteristics and risk factors of patients with delayed diagnosis (i.e., presented to the ED within one week of a previous visit) and patients without delayed diagnosis of one of 7 serious medical conditions. Patients who were Hispanic or non-Hispanic Black, had public or other insurance, or non-English speaking were associated with delayed diagnosis.