The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in the United States limits resident physicians' workweek to 80 hours. Several studies have investigated the association between first year residents (i.e., interns, PGY1), worked hours and patient safety. This study includes residents beyond the first year (i.e., PGY2+). Nearly 5,000 PGY2+ residents reported the number of hours worked, patient safety outcomes, and resident health and outcomes. Working more than 60 hours in a week significantly increased the risk of a medical error resulting in patient death. The authors suggest weekly workweek limits should be significantly reduced, such as they are in the United Kingdom.

Community pharmacies face unique challenges in ensuring patient safety. This commentary summarizes research on prescribing errors in community pharmacies and how a culture of safety in community pharmacies can drive improvements in prescribing safety.

Medication errors are common, especially among medical trainees. This retrospective cohort study conducted at one medical center in the Netherlands identified a high rate of errors in prescriptions written by medical students (40% of all prescriptions). The most common type of error was inadequate information in the prescription – such as not indicating the dosage form or concentration, or missing usage instructions, or omitting the weight for a pediatric patient. Findings indicate that 29% of errors would not have been intercepted and resolved by an electronic prescribing system or pharmacist.

Patient safety improvements must consider the complexities of care delivery to achieve lasting change. This commentary discusses recent evidence examining the effect of duty hour limit adjustments. The authors highlight challenges regarding research design on this medical education policy change and how it affects learner and patient experience. They suggest caution in applying the study conclusions. 

The criminal conviction of a nurse involved in a medical error has raised concerns about a possible negative impact on error disclosure. This article discusses the ethical and legal considerations related to this prosecution and the association with patient safety.

The effectiveness of incident reporting systems is hindered by underreporting. This cohort study describes the characteristics of incident reports submitted by trainees in a large academic medical center. From October 2019 through December 2021, trainees submitted nearly 200 incident reports, primarily describing unprofessional interactions. Findings suggest that awareness and support for the online incident reporting system among trainees was high.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) includes work hour restrictions in its Common Program Requirements. The focus of this review is the impact of resident work hour restrictions on patient- and resident-level outcomes. Shorter shift hours were associated with some improved resident outcomes and but no association with patient outcomes.

Several countries have resident duty hour (RDH) restrictions and there are numerous publications examining the impact of RDH on patient safety. This study used two online discussion forums (one primarily in the United States and the other in Canada) to assess resident perceptions of RDH. Themes included its impact on residents’ education and clinician well-being, and, worryingly, discussions of not reporting RDH violations.

Medicare’s Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program financially incentivizes hospitals to reduce HAC rates and earlier research has shown hospitals in more diverse areas have higher odds of performing poorly. This study compares HAC reduction in Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals and examines potential racial and ethnic disparities. Similar to an earlier study, Magnet hospitals had significant improvements in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rates, but not other HACs.

In 2022, the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) began requiring residency programs to provide instruction and experience in pain management for internal medicine trainees. Residency program directors were surveyed in 2019 about whether and how they provide instruction and experience to residents in safe opioid prescribing (SOP) and treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). Most programs required didactic learning, but few required clinical experience. Given that the ACGME requirement is now in place, the researchers suggest many programs may be ill-prepared to meet the requirement.

Patient safety advocates have called for cognitive testing of aging clinicians and some health systems have attempted instituting such policies as part of their recredentialing program. This commentary calls for state medical boards to adopt cognitive testing as part of the recredentialling process within the confines of legal boundaries.

In the wake of the criminal conviction of a nurse involved in a medical error, numerous organizations and institutions have warned of the negative impact it could have on learning and error disclosure. This commentary presents strategies to reduce the risk of criminal prosecution for pharmacists, including education of prosecutors and expert witnesses and minimization of overrides and workarounds.

New graduate registered nurses (NGRNs) frequently experience a knowledge-practice gap during their transition to practice. This article suggests that the gap has widened, as COVID-19 restrictions impacted pre-licensure nurses’ education, clinical training, testing, and licensure. Recommendations for improving the transition to practice include innovative academic-clinical partnerships.

In 2019, a consensus group identified twelve competencies to improve diagnostic education. This article details next steps for incorporating competencies into interprofessional health education: 1) Developing a shared, common language for diagnosis, 2) developing the necessary content, 3) developing assessment tools, 4) promoting faculty development, and 5) spreading awareness of the need to improve education in regard to diagnosis.

Readmission reduction as an improvement measure has been found to be problematic as a maternal safety outcome. This statement shares concerns regarding incentivizing hospitalization reductions after birth and explores the potential for patient harm due to pressures to reduce readmissions when needed.

Open disclosure and apology for errors is recommended in healthcare. In this study, 38 state medical boards responded to a survey regarding disclosure and apology practices after medical errors. Findings suggest that state medical boards have generally favorable views toward clinicians who disclose errors and apologize, and that these actions would not make the clinician a target for disciplinary action; respondents had less favorable views towards legislative initiatives regarding apologies and disclosure.