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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 259 Results
WebM&M Case March 15, 2023

The cases described in this WebM&M reflect fragmented care with lapses in coordination and communication as well as failure to appropriately address medication discrepancies. These two cases involve duplicate therapy errors, which have the potential to cause serious adverse drug events.

Ledlie S, Gomes T, Dolovich L, et al. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. 2023;9:100218.
Mandatory error reporting systems can help identify types, causes, and solutions to medication-related errors. More than 30,000 medication-related incidents were reported by community pharmacists to the Assurance and Improvement in Medication (AIMS) Program in Canada. Event type, severity, medication class, and method of detection are described. Only 60% of pharmacies submitted at least one report, indicating compliance with and participation in the AIMS Program remains low.
Snoswell CL, De Guzman KR, Barras M. Intern Med J. 2023;53:95-103.
Community pharmacists play an important role in ensuring patient safety. This retrospective analysis of 18 outpatient pharmacy clinics evaluated pharmacist recommendations and impacts on medication-related safety. Researchers indicated that outpatient pharmacists were effective in resolving 82% of medication-related problems; 18% of these involved high-risk recommendations, such as medication interactions.
White A, Fulda KG, Blythe R, et al. Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2022;21:1357-1364.
Community-based pharmacists have a critical role in ensuring medication safety in community settings. In this narrative review, the authors explored how collaboration between community-based pharmacists and primary care providers can improve medication safety. The most common collaboration strategy was medication review. The authors identified barriers to collaboration from both the primary care provider and pharmacist perspectives.

ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care editionJanuary 26, 2023:28(2):1-4.

Look-alike and sound-alike drug names are a perpetual cause for confusion that decreases medication safety. This article discusses the results of a national survey on the importance of mixed case drug names, which found that 94% of the 298 respondents reported using mixed case drug names in their organization and that the majority of participants felt that mixed case lettering prevents drug selection events. The survey also identified new drug names for inclusion on the 2023 list revision.
Clark J, Fera T, Fortier CR, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79:2279-2306.
Drug diversion is a system issue that has the potential to disrupt patient access to safe, reliable medications and result in harm. These guidelines offer a structured approach for organizations to develop and implement drug diversion prevention efforts. The strategies submitted focus on foundational, organizational, and individual prevention actions that target risk points across the medication use process such as storage, prescribing, and waste disposal.

ISMP Medication Safety Alert!: Acute Care Edition. December 1, 2022;27(24):1-3.

Look-alike medications are vulnerable to wrong route and other use errors. This article examines the potential for mistaken application of ear drops into eyes. Strategies highlighted to reduce this error focus on storage, dispensing, administration, and patient education.
Saran AK, Holden NA, Garrison SR. BJGP Open. 2022;6:BJGPO.2022.0001.
Tablet-splitting may introduce patient safety risks, such as unpredictable dosing. This systematic review and qualitative synthesis did not identify substantive evidence to support tablet-splitting concerns, with the exception of sustained-release tablets and use by older adults who may struggle to split tablets due to physical limitations.
Carmack A, Valleru J, Randall KH, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49:3-13.
Retained surgical items (RSI) are a never event, a serious and preventable event. After experiencing a high rate of RSIs, this United States health system implemented a bundle to reduce RSI, improve near-miss reporting, and increase process reliability in operating rooms. The bundle consisted of five elements: surgical stop, surgical debrief, visual counters, imaging, and reporting.

Schneider E, Koretz BK, eds. Clin Geriatr Med. 2022;38(4):621-732.

Polypharmacy is a known contributor to medication complexity and error. This special issue examines the impact unnecessary medications have in a variety of care environments, such as nursing homes and emergency departments, and clinical areas, such as oncology and behavioral health.

Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

Mixed case letters are one suggested strategy to reduce look-alike medication name errors. This survey announcement calls for insight from the field to update an existing resource of problematic drug name pairs and examine the effectiveness of mixed case letter use to minimize confusion. The comment submission period is now closed.

Kaplan A. NBC News. October 27, 2022. 

Suboptimal working conditions are a known contributor to errors in retail pharmacies. This news article discusses how one major pharmacy chain will adjust their staff quality metrics to eliminate timing as a performance measure in the interest of reducing pharmacist and staff burnout and fulfilment errors.
Laing L, Salema N-E, Jeffries M, et al. PLoS ONE. 2022;17:e0275633.
Previous research found that the pharmacist-led IT-based intervention to reduce clinically important medication errors (PINCER) can reduce prescription and medication monitoring errors. This qualitative study explored patients’ perceived acceptability of the PINCER intervention in primary care. Overall perceptions were positive, but participants noted that PINCER acceptability can be improved through enhanced patient-pharmacist relationships, consistent delivery of PINCER-related care, and synchronization of medication reviews with prescription renewals.
Wong J, Lee S-Y, Sarkar U, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79:2230-2243.
Medication errors in ambulatory care settings represent an ongoing patient safety challenge. This study characterizes ambulatory care adverse drug events reported to a large patient safety organization between May 2012 and October 2018. Anticoagulants, antibiotics, hypoglycemics, and opioids were the most commonly involved medication classes. Contributing factors included prescribing errors, failure to review clinical contraindications or drug-drug interactions, and lack of patient education or communication.
Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2018.
The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Community Pharmacy Survey and accompanying toolkit were developed to collect opinions of community pharmacy staff on the safety culture at their pharmacies.

MedWatch Safety Alert. Silver Spring, MD: US Food and Drug Administration; September 29, 2022.

Recalls of medications due to labeling errors are an established approach to minimize the potential for harm. This announcement highlights a labeling mistake with hypertension and antiplatelet medications that could result in dose omissions or bleeding risk.
Pitts SI, Yang Y, Woodroof T, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e934-e937.
CancelRx is a health information tool designed to improve communication between electronic health record (EHR) systems and pharmacy dispensing software. This study found that CancelRx implementation eliminated the sale of electronically prescribed medications after discontinuation in the EHR, compared to prior to implementation. Researchers found that CancelRx did result in the unintentional cancellation of some prescriptions and they discuss the importance of situational awareness among providers and pharmacy staff to mitigate this issue.
Gleeson LL, Ludlow A, Wallace E, et al. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. 2022;6:100143.
Primary care rapidly shifted to telehealth and virtual visits at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study asked general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists in Ireland about the impact of technology (i.e., virtual visits, electronic prescribing) on medication safety since the pandemic began. Both groups identified electronic prescribing as the most significant workflow change. GPs did not perceive a change in medication safety incidents due to electronic prescribing; pharmacists reported a slight increase in incidents.