This study sought to determine the rate of pediatric emergency department (ED) visits due to adverse drug events (ADE). Of 1,708 pediatric patients, 12.3% were admitted to the ED due to ADEs, with the highest rates of admission due to neurological, dermatological, and respiratory medications. The authors recommend the involvement of clinical pharmacists to prevent and identify ADEs in the pediatric population, particularly through education of children’s caregivers and health professionals.

Preconceptions of disease can impact the medical and social response to patients with chronic conditions. This article discusses patients with COVID-19 who survive the virus and describes ineffective support due to lack of understanding and empathy regarding the long-COVID survivors experience.    

These authors discuss the role of family caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest avenues to support the relationship between families and residents of long-term care facilities, including strengthening communicating channels, activating family councils, and utilizing gerontological social work students.

Parents are advised to keep medications inaccessible to young children to avoid accidental ingestions. This study prospectively enrolled nearly 4,500 individuals calling poison control centers about unsupervised solid dose medication exposure in young children (ages 5 years and younger) to identify the types of containers from which young children accessed these medications. The majority of incidents (71.6%) involved children 2 years and younger. Incidents were equally divided among calls involving prescription-only medications, over-the-counter (OTC) projects requiring child-resistant packaging, and OTC projects not requiring such packaging. One-third of all incidents involved medication that had been removed from the original container; this was more likely in incidents involving prescription drugs compared to OTC drugs (adjusted odds ratio, 3.39; 95% CI, 2.87-4.00).  These findings suggest that unsupervised medication exposures in young children are just as often the result of adults removing medications from original packaging as the result of improper use or failure of child-resistant packaging.

Advance care planning (ACP) allows patients to express and document their preferences about medical treatment; however, there are concerns about uptake and documentation due to human error. This study used patient safety incident reports in the UK to characterize and explore safety issues arising from ACP and to identify areas for improvement. Over a ten-year period, there were 70 reports of an ACP-related patient safety incident (due to incomplete documentation, inaccessible documentation or miscommunication, or ACP directives not being followed) which led to inappropriate treatment, transfer or admission. The importance of targeting the human factors of the ACP process to improve safety is discussed. A PSNet Human Factors Primer on human factors expands on these concepts.  

Patient safety in the home has not been well defined and there have been few studies of this setting. This study examines the concept of patient safety in the home and identifies personal health information management tools to support and maximize patient safety in the home. The study findings demonstrate the physical, emotional, social and functional dimensions of patient safety in the home and ways for informatics tools to maximize safety aspects.

Patient safety is a global concern across the economic spectrum. This commentary summarizes activities associated with the first World Patient Safety Day and emphasizes how patient engagement is key to generating lasting improvements around the world to enhance patient safety.