Missed steps in the diagnostic process, such as timely referral for surgical consultation, can lead to missed or delayed diagnoses. This large, retrospective cohort study using Medicare data identified disparities between Black and White patients in receipt of consults for emergency surgery. Findings show that Black patients had lower odds of receiving a surgical consultation after being admitted from the emergency department; these disparities remained after adjusting for medical comorbidities, socioeconomic factors, and individual hospital-level effects.

Patient and family engagement in safety is a priority for the UK’s National Health Service. This study asked patients in three hospital wards (geriatrics, elective surgery, maternity) how they conceptualize patient safety. Responses described what made them “feel safe” in their experiences with the organization, staff, the patients themselves, and family/carers.

Emergency surgery carries an increased risk of death compared to elective surgery. This study used a regional electronic health record (EHR) to examine clinical risk factors associated with mortality in emergency general surgery. Risk factors for both inpatient and 1-year mortality included older age, underweight, neutropenia, and elevated lactate.

Understanding patient experience can provide key insights about safety culture. This qualitative study of 80 adult patients concluded that patients’ perspectives of surgical safety are closely tied to the degree of trust they have in their surgeons; this trust is based on the patient’s relationship with their surgeon, communication style, and the patient’s experience during perioperative consultation.

Trigger tools are one method of retrospectively detecting adverse events. In this study, researchers used data from 31 Spanish hospitals to validate a trigger tool in general and gastrointestinal surgery departments. Of 40 triggers, 12 were identified for optimizing predictive power of the trigger tool, including broad spectrum antibiotherapy, unscheduled postoperative radiology, and reintervention.

Lack of communication and interpersonal dynamics can contribute to failure to rescue. This study surveyed 262 surgical staff about perceived safety climate, but the authors did not find an association between organizational safety culture and failure to rescue or inpatient mortality.  

Wrong-site surgeries can lead to serious patient harm and are considered never events by the National Quality Forum. Based on events reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System between 2015 and 2019, the authors identified an average of 1.42 wrong-site surgery events per week and found that three-quarters of events resulted in temporary or permanent patient harm. The authors present several evidence-based strategies to reduce the likelihood of wrong-site surgery, including preoperative and intraoperative verification, site marking, and timeouts.  

Silence in the operating room (OR) can have implications on surgical team function and patient safety. Through interviews with interprofessional surgical team members, the authors explored the influence of silence on team action in the OR and found that silence in the surgical environment – whether due to team cohesion or individual defiance – has implications for team functions.

This systematic review evaluated the relationships between intraoperative flow disruptions (eg, interruptions, equipment malfunctions, unexpected patient conditions) and provider, surgical process, and patient outcomes. On average, 20.5% of operating time was attributed to flow disruptions and these disruptions were either negatively or not substantially associated with surgical outcomes. The authors observed substantial heterogeneity of the evidence base and provided recommendations for future research on the effects of flow disruptions in surgery.

In this survey of 6,264 US general surgery residents, 70% reported experiencing at least one bullying behavior during surgical training and 18% reported frequent bullying. The most common types of bullying behavior were repeated reminders of mistakes, being shouted at, withholding of important information, persistent criticism, and hostility. Women and racial/ethnic minorities reported more frequent bullying. Residents reporting frequent bullying had higher rates of burnout, suicidal thoughts, and thoughts of leaving surgical training.

Communication has become a foci of improvement efforts across the spectrum of patient safety. This article discusses a surgical complication incident that illustrates the importance of transparency, disclosure and collaboration as elements of a successful approach to communication that can successfully manage the impact of an adverse incident.

Office-based anesthesia (OBA) is being performed more commonly internationally. This narrative literature review updates the evidence related to the safety of OBA and makes recommendations for safe practices including; medical directors to be responsible for evidence-based policies, OBA safety and patient checklists emergency procedures, physical setting requirements, pharmacological management, preoperative procedures, airway management and others. The authors identify that lack of consistent regulations and incomplete protocol standardization is problematic.

This qualitative study sought to identify barriers and enablers influencing stakeholder support of the Operating Room (OR) Black Box, an audio-video recording device similar to that used on airplanes. Stakeholders were mostly supportive of the OR Black Box, but several potential barriers were identified, such as time pressures in the OR and perceptions that the Black Box may negatively impact clinical performance. Authors concluded that the OR Black Box must be positioned as a patient safety initiative to improve practice.

Utilizing American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project  (ACS NSQIP) data, the authors looked at the effects of intraoperative handoffs  involving anesthesia personnel in two hospitals. Initial findings of higher rates of adverse outcomes were no longer statistically significant when confounding variables were added to the analysis.

There is no consensus around how intraoperative adverse events should be measured and reported. This systematic review summarized the evidence regarding the measurement and reporting of these events and found that the frequency of events varied by detection method and noted a need to develop a framework to measure event severity and document corrective processes. A PSNet primer on measuring patient safety provides additional insight.  

Despite process changes and availability of new technologies, prescribing errors (one type of medication administration errors) remain a serious safety problem. This article describes a single-site pharmacist-led intervention that involved doctors-in-training (residents) reviewing video footage of their patient visits with a pharmacist. The feedback intervention resulted in a significant reduction in prescribing errors and was found acceptable and feasible by participants. 

Patients' health literacy can have have profound safety implications. This retrospective study found that patients with low health literacy undergoing major abdominal surgery experienced a longer length of stay during the index hospitalization.

Insufficient supervision can limit resident education, which may increase risks to patient safety. This commentary outlines factors that reduce the effectiveness of general surgery resident supervision and provides suggestions to augment supervision, including developing policies that outline when resident supervision is required and educating hospital executives about the need for appropriate oversight of care delivered by trainees.