The PSNet Collection: All Content

The AHRQ PSNet Collection comprises an extensive selection of resources relevant to the patient safety community. These resources come in a variety of formats, including literature, research, tools, and Web sites. Resources are identified using the National Library of Medicine’s Medline database, various news and content aggregators, and the expertise of the AHRQ PSNet editorial and technical teams.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 236 Results

VHA's movement for change: implementing high-reliability principles and practices.

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Cox GR, Starr LM. J Healthc Manag. 2023;68:151-157.

Becoming a high-reliability organization (HRO) to improve patient safety is a goal of the Veterans Heath Administration (VHA). This commentary describes the VHA's implementation strategy and progress since 2019 at the patient, employee, and organizational levels. The three pillars of the VHA's HRO strategy are leadership commitment, a culture of safety, and continuous process improvement. Challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are also discussed.

Deficiencies in Emergent and Outpatient Care of a Patient with Alcohol Use Disorder at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; March 29, 2023. Report no. 21-03680-80.

Care systems for alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients are suboptimal. This report examines the case of a patient with AUD whose emergency care was mismanaged, uncoordinated, and incomplete, contributing to his death two days after discharge. The safety recommendations shared include improving discharge planning, assessment, and consideration of mental health conditions when caring for AUD patients.

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Value and Patient Safety

March 8, 2023

Value as an element of patient safety is emerging as an approach to prioritize and evaluate improvement actions. This library highlights resources that explore the business case for cost effective, efficient and impactful efforts to reduce medical errors.

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Diagnostic Safety

October 10, 2022

Selected PSNet materials for a general safety audience focusing on improvements in the diagnostic process and the strategies that support them to prevent diagnostic errors from harming patients.

Multiple Failures in Test Results Follow-up for a Patient Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer at the Hampton VA Medical Center in Virginia.

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Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; June 28, 2022. Report No 21-03349-186.

Cancer test communication failures can contribute to physical, emotional, and financial patient harm. This report examines missed opportunities made by multiple clinicians involved in the care of a patient with prostate cancer who then died from metastasized disease Seven recommendations are included for improving abnormal test result communication and error management at the facility.

Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Summary Report: Evaluation of Mental Health in Veterans Health Administration Facilities, Fiscal Year 2020.

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Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; February 17, 2022. Report No. 21-01506-76.

Patient suicide is a reoccurring sentinel event that is a challenge for the veteran’s health care community. This report shares the results of 36 unplanned inspections at United States Veterans Affairs facilities. While the inspections found general guidance compliance to be in place, weaknesses in required patient follow-up, staff training and outreach activities were flagged as areas in need of targeted improvement to enhance patient safety.

Evaluation of Quality, Safety, and Value in Veterans Health Administration Facilities, FY 2020.

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Washington, DC: Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General; August 26, 2021. Report No. 21-01502-240.

Organizational assessments often provide insights that address overarching quality and safety challenges. This extensive inspection report shares findings from inspections of 36 Veterans Health Administration care facilities. Recommendations drawn from the analysis call for improvements in suicide death review, root cause analysis result application, and safety committee action item implementation.

Failures in Care Coordination and Reviewing a Patient's Death at the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System in Utah.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. July 29, 2021. Report No. 21-00657-197.

Care coordination effectiveness is tested by time, hierarchy, and practice silos. This report examines allegations affecting medication access enabled by poor communication, workforce absences, and the built environment challenges. While care coordination challenges in this case were unsubstantiated, the report highlights lack of clinical review and inaccurate analysis of patient death as concerns.

Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety. IQuESt!

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Houston, TX: Baylor College of Medicine.

This Center represents a partnership with the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Center of Innovation to enhance researchers' skills through active participation in diagnostic safety research and policy development. The goals of the program include a focus on behavioral health interventions and measurement.

Deficiencies in Emergency Preparedness for Veterans Health Administration Telemental Health Care at VA Clinic Locations Prior to the Pandemic.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. June 24, 2021. Report No. 19-09808-171.

This report examined veterans' health clinic use of telemental health to identify safety challenges inherent in this approach before the expansion of telemedine during the COVID-19 crisis. The authors note the complexities in managing emergent mental health situations in virtual consultations. Recommendations for improvement included emergency preparedness planning, specific reporting of telemental health incidents and organized access to experts.

Care and Oversight Deficiencies Related to Multiple Homicides at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

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Washington DC: Department of Veterans Affairs. Office of Inspector General; May 11, 2021. Report No. 20-03593-140.

Health care system failures can enable unrecognized, persistent criminal behavior. This report examines conditions contributing to a serial murder case including weaknesses in mortality data analysis, clinical documentation review, patient safety incident reporting, medication security processes, and safety culture.

Deficiencies in Inpatient Mental Health Care Coordination and Processes Prior to a Patient's Death by Suicide, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital in Columbia, Missouri.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. January 5, 2021. Report No. 20-01521-48.

This investigation examined care coordination, screening and other factors that contributed to a patient death by suicide shortly after discharge from a Veteran’s Hospital. Event reporting, disclosure and evaluation gaps were identified as process weaknesses to be addressed.

A high-reliability organization framework for health care: a multiyear implementation strategy and associated outcomes.

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Sculli GL, Pendley-Louis R, Neily J, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:64-70.

The goal of high-reliability organizations is to operate in high-hazard domains with consistently safe conditions, but implementation of high reliability has yet to be universally employed in health care. This article describes the implementation of a high-reliability hospital framework on patient safety culture and clinical outcomes at one VHA medical center. Framework components included an annual patient safety assessment, annual safety culture survey, annual root cause analysis (RCA) training, leadership walk arounds, and just culture training. Three years after implementation, patient safety culture and event reporting rates improved, and the medical center experienced significant improvements in mortality and complication rates compared to other VHA hospitals. Based on these results, the framework will be implemented across 18 additional VHA sites.

Patient misidentification events in the Veterans Health Administration: a comprehensive review in the context of high-reliability health care.

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Kulju S, Morrish W, King LA, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e290-e296.

Patient misidentification can lead to serious patient safety risks. Researchers used patient safety reports and root cause analyses (RCA) to characterize patient misidentification events in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The incidence of patient misidentification in inpatient and outpatient settings was similar and most commonly attributed to the absence of two unique patient identifiers. The authors identified three strategies to mitigate misidentification based on high-reliability principles: (1) develop policies for patient identification throughout the continuum of care, (2) develop policies to report and monitor patient misidentification measures, and (3) apply quality and process improvement tools to patient identification emphasizing use by front line staff.

Deficiencies in Care, Care Coordination, and Facility Response to a Patient Who Died by Suicide, Memphis VA Medical Center in Tennessee.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General; September 3, 2020. Report No 19-09493-249.

Discontinuities in mental health care are a patient safety concern. This report analyzes how documentation gaps, medication reconciliation problems, and poor care coordination contributed to the suicide of a patient who presented at an emergency room, was screened there, and referred to a clinic for further care that was not completed.

Identifying psychiatric diagnostic errors with the Safer Dx Instrument.

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Fletcher TL, Helm A, Vaghani V, et al. Int J Qual Health Care. 2020;32:405-411.

This study adapted the Safer Dx tool to evaluate errors in anxiety diagnoses and found that it has a high reliability for detecting psychiatric diagnostic errors and that it warrants further testing in other psychiatric populations.

Deprescribing for community-dwelling older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Bloomfield HE, Greer N, Linsky AM, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2020;35:3323-3332.

Deprescribing is one strategy to reduce polypharmacy among older adults. This systematic review found that medication deprescribing interventions (particularly those involving comprehensive medication review) may provide small reductions in mortality and use of potentially inappropriate medications among community-dwelling older adults.

Becoming a High Reliability Organization.

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VHA Forum. Summer 2020;1-12.

High reliability attainment is a stated goal for health care organizations. This special issue covers established initiatives at the United States Veterans Health Administration that draw from high reliability principles to improve care. Topics covered include evaluation priorities, safe patient handling and diagnostic safety.

Safety climate associated with adverse events in nursing homes: a national VA study.

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Quach ED, Kazis LE, Zhao S, et al. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2021;22:388-392.

This cross-sectional study examined the impact of safety climate on adverse events occurring in Veterans Administration (VA) nursing homes and community living centers. Survey results suggest that nursing homes may reduce adverse events by increasing supportive supervision and a safer physical environment. The survey found that supervisor commitment to safety was associated with lower rates of major injuries from falls and catheter use, and that environmental safety was associated with lower rates of pressure ulcers, major injuries from falls, and catheter use.

Inadequate Emergency Department Care and Physician Misconduct at the Washington DC VA Medical Center.

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Office of the Inspector General. Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs; July 28, 2020. Report Number 19-07507-214.

Patient suicide is a never event. This report analyzes the death of a veteran after presenting at an emergency room with suicidal ideation. The analysis found lack of both suicide prevention policy adherence and appropriate assessment, as well as a lack concern for the patient’s condition contributed to the failure.

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