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 1801 Results

Adolescents identifying errors and omissions in their electronic health records: a national survey.

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Hagström J, Blease CR, Kharko A, et al. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2023;302:242-246.

Patients are increasingly able to access their health record via electronic patient portals and many report finding errors in the record. This study asked adolescent (ages 15-19) patient portal users if they had identified errors or omissions in their record, and if so, did they report them to their provider. Approximately one-quarter of patients identified an error and 20% identified an omission. The majority of those patients did not report it to the clinic or healthcare provider.

Impact of a computerized physician order entry system on medication safety in pediatrics-The AVOID study.

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Wimmer S, Toni I, Botzenhardt S, et al. Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2023;11:e01092.

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.

Classification of health information technology safety events in a pediatric tertiary care hospital.

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Khan A, Karavite DJ, Muthu N, et al. J Patient Saf. 2023;19:251-257.

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.

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

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Patient Safety Innovation May 31, 2023

Seeking a sustainable process to enhance their hospitals’ response to sepsis, a multidisciplinary team at WellSpan Health oversaw the development and implementation of a system that uses customized electronic health record (EHR) alert settings and a team of remote nurses to help frontline staff identify and respond to patients showing signs of sepsis. When the remote nurses, or Central Alerts Team (CAT), receive an alert, they assess the patient’s information and collaborate with the clinical care team to recommend a response.

Danger in discharge summaries: abbreviations create confusion for both author and recipient.

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Coghlan A, Turner S, Coverdale S. Intern Med J. 2023;53:550-558.

Use of abbreviations in electronic health records increases risk of misunderstandings, particularly between providers of different specialties. In this study, junior doctors and general practitioners were asked about their understanding of common, uncommon, and rare abbreviations used in hospital discharge notes. No abbreviation was interpreted in the same way by all respondents, and nearly all respondents left at least one abbreviation blank or responded that they didn't know.

Interorganizational health information exchange-related patient safety incidents: a descriptive register-based qualitative study.

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Hyvämäki P, Sneck S, Meriläinen M, et al. Int J Med Inform. 2023;174:105045.

Insufficient or incorrect transfer of patient information, whether caused by human or organizational factors, can result in adverse events during transitions of care. This study used four years of incident reports to identify the types, causes, and consequences of health information exchange- (HIE) related patient safety incidents in emergency care, (ED) emergency medical services (EMS), or home care. The two main kinds of HIE-related incidents were (1) inadequate documentation and inadequate use of information (e.g., deficiencies in content), and (2) causes related to the health professional or organization; consequences were adverse events or additional actions to prevent, avoid, and correct adverse events.

Using sociotechnical theory to understand medication safety work in primary care and prescribers' use of clinical decision support: a qualitative study.

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Jeffries M, Salema N-E, Laing L, et al. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e068798.

Clinical decision support (CDS) systems were developed to support safe medication ordering, alerting prescribers to potential unsafe interactions such as drug-drug, drug-allergy, and dosing errors. This study uses a sociotechnical framework to understand the relationship between primary care prescribers’ safety work and CDS. Prescribers described the usefulness of CDS but also noted alert fatigue.

Human factors and safety analysis methods used in the design and redesign of electronic medication management systems: a systematic review.

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Awad S, Amon K, Baillie A, et al. Int J Med Inform. 2023;172:105017.

Computerized provider order entry (CPOE), clinical decision support (CDS), and electronic medication management systems (EMMS) have increased efficiency and reduced prescribing errors, but poor design may introduce new safety hazards. Human factors and safety analysis methods can be used to increase the safety of new technologies, ideally before problems arise. This review identifies human factors and safety analysis methods applied to EMMS. Most methods focused on usability or design, and only one used a safety-oriented approach. Increased inclusion of human factors specialists could increase the use of safety-oriented methods of EMMS design.

Improving safety during transitions of care through the use of electronic referral loops to receive and reconcile health information.

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Allen G, Setzer J, Jones R, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49:247-254.

Reconciling medication lists at transitions of care is a widely recognized safety strategy; however, other parts of the electronic health record (EHR) - allergies and problem lists - also need reconciliation. This article describes an academic medical system's quality improvement project to increase rates of complete reconciliation of problems, medications, and allergies in the EHR. Twenty-six cycles of Plan-Do-Study-Act increased completion rates from 20% to 80%.

Curated Libraries

Implementation of Patient Safety Projects Curated Library

May 4, 2023

The implementation of effective patient safety initiatives is challenging due to the complexity of the health care environment. This curated library shares resources summarizing overarching ideas and strategies that can aid in successful program execution, establishment, and sustainability.

More than algorithms: an analysis of safety events involving ML-enabled medical devices reported to the FDA.

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Lyell D, Wang Y, Coiera E, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2023;Epub Apr 18.

Patients and healthcare providers rely on devices that use artificial intelligence or machine learning in diagnostics, treatment, and monitoring. This study utilizes adverse event reports submitted to the FDA's Manufacturer and Use Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database for machine learning-enabled devices. Mammography was implicated in 69% of reports, and the majority were near-miss events.

Identifying electronic health record contributions to diagnostic error in ambulatory settings through legal claims analysis.

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Krevat S, Samuel S, Boxley C, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6:e238399.

The majority of healthcare providers use electronic health record (EHR) systems but these systems are not infallible. This analysis used closed malpractice claims from the CRICO malpractice insurance database to identify whether the EHR contributes to diagnostic error, the types of errors, and where in the diagnostic process errors occur. EHR contributed to diagnostic error in 61% of claims, the majority in outpatient care, and 92% at the testing stage.

Surveillance Monitoring to Improve Patient Safety in Acute Hospital Care Units

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Perspective on Safety April 26, 2023

This piece discusses surveillance monitoring of patients in low-acuity units of the hospital to prevent failure to rescue events, its difference from high-acuity continuous monitoring, and its potential applications in other settings.

In Conversation with Susan McGrath, PhD and George Blike, MD about Surveillance Monitoring

Drs. Susan McGrath and George Blike discuss surveillance monitoring and its challenges and opportunities.

Effect of a hospital command centre on patient safety: an interrupted time series study.

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Mebrahtu TF, McInerney CD, Benn J, et al. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2023;30(1):e100653.

Command centers are an emerging approach to improve the delivery of safe care and identify clinical deterioration. This article describes the implementation of a command center at two hospitals in the United Kingdom, which led to improvements in mortality and readmissions but did not impact postoperative sepsis rates.

Potentiality of algorithms and artificial intelligence adoption to improve medication management in primary care: a systematic review.

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Damiani G, Altamura G, Zedda M, et al. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e065301.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to identify and prevent patient safety threats. This review focuses on AI used to reduce medication errors in the primary care setting. Most studies targeted the prescribing stage, and the main category of AI was computerized decision support system.

Improving medication safety in a paediatric hospital: a mixed-methods evaluation of a newly implemented computerised provider order entry system.

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Liang MQ, Thibault M, Jouvet P, et al. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2023;30(1):e100622.

Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems are widely used and can help prevent medication administration errors. This mixed-methods study examined the impact of CPOE on medication safety in the pediatric department at one Canadian hospital. Researchers found that most errors occurred during the medication administration step rather than the prescribing step. The researchers also observed a non-statistically significant decrease in medication errors overall, which was primarily attributed to significant improvements in errors during order acknowledgement, transmission, and transcription.

Potential uses of AI for perioperative nursing handoffs: a qualitative study.

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King CR, Shambe A, Abraham J. JAMIA Open. 2023;6:ooaf015.

Handoffs and transitions of care represent a vulnerable time for patients as important information must be shared and understood by multiple people. This study focuses on postoperative nurse handoffs, specifically regarding situational awareness and anticipatory guidance, and the role artificial intelligence (AI) could play in improving handoffs. Five themes were uncovered, including the importance of situational awareness and associated barriers, how AI could address those barriers, and how AI could result in new/additional barriers.

Racism and electronic health records (EHRs): perspectives for research and practice.

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Emani S, Rodriguez JA, Bates DW. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2023;30:995-999.

Electronic health records (EHR) are essential for recording patients' clinical data but may also perpetuate stigma, particularly for people of color. This article describes how the EHR can perpetuate individual, organizational, and structural racism and ways organizations, researchers, practitioners, and vendors can address racism.

Indication documentation and indication-based prescribing within electronic prescribing systems: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

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Feather C, Appelbaum N, Darzi A, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2023;32:357–368.

Requiring a prescriber to include an indication for a medication can reduce the risk of wrong-patient orders and improve antimicrobial and opioid stewardship. This review identified 21 studies describing interventions to encourage prescribers to include indications for medications. In addition to patient safety benefits, several risks and drawbacks were uncovered, such as potential loss of patient privacy or alert fatigue.

Sentinel Event Data Summary.

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Joint Commission.

This website provides sentinel event data reported to The Joint Commission, which includes information on sentinel events reported from January through December 2022. Falls, unintended retained foreign bodies, and delays in treatment were among the most frequently submitted incidents in this time period which represents a 19% increase over 2021. The data and graphs are updated regularly and include a 5 year trend analysis and specific analysis associated with event type by year from 2018 through 2022.

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