Racial and ethnic inequalities are emerging as a primary contributor to harmful maternal care. This guidance examines obstacles to safe care for mothers of color and shares recommendations to reduce disparities such as team-based care and implicit bias training.

Lack of access to obstetric care impedes safe treatment for mothers. This story describes challenges one mother experienced in finding care during a miscarriage due to abortion policies and the steps she and her family took to manage her condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed fractures in health care systems worldwide. The authors advocate for enhanced use of systems-focused and organization-centric strategies to improve patient safety through universal application of best practices.

Emergency department safety is challenged by factors such as production pressure, burnout, and overcrowding. This news article provides context for the 2022 AHRQ report Diagnostic Errors in the Emergency Department: A Systematic Review from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) which synthesized the number of patients harmed while seeking emergency care.

Inadequate equipment and personnel training degrade the reliability of individuals to provide safe care in an emergency. This article discusses inconsistent preparedness throughout commercial aviation to support care during an in-flight medical situation; it suggests federal oversight of medical kits may help to ensure their completeness and improve the potential for safety should care be required.

The National Steering Committee for Patient Safety (NSC) was formed to engage with the health care community to plan and prioritize patient safety work to generate improvements. This short survey seeks comments from the field to determine current interest and status in efforts aligned with the National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety.

Although diagnostic accuracy in the emergency department (ED) is high, diagnostic errors still occur. This evidence review estimated that 1 in 18 ED patients receive an incorrect diagnosis, which translates to 7.4 million patients misdiagnosed every year (or 5.7% of all ED visits annually). Five conditions were found to be most vulnerable to misdiagnosis: stroke, heart attack, aortic aneurysm/ dissection, spinal cord injury and blood clots. The evidence review identified variation in diagnostic error rates across demographic groups; female sex and non-White race were often associated with increased risk for diagnostic errors. Serious misdiagnosis-related harms were often associated with clinician bedside judgement and other cognitive failures. 

Partnerships are needed to motivate, design, and implement lasting innovation in complex situations. This announcement calls for stakeholder insights on the work of the National Healthcare System Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety and how it can best realize its mission and goals. The deadline for submitting comments is January 26, 2023.

Gender and racial bias contributes to inadequate and delayed care. This story focuses on women who have experienced harm due to their pain concerns being marginalized or dismissed.

The need for a national government-led patient safety effort has long been advocated for. This legislation outlines the structure of a federal agency to provide support for patient safety data collection, national incident analysis, and recommendation development.

Systemic efforts to improve health equity support patient safety. This announcement highlights an initiative for collective work to address four areas of effort to reduce inequity in health care: access, workforce, social and structural drivers, and quality and safety.