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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 161 - 180 of 18110 Results
Corby S, Ash JS, Florig ST, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2022;Epub Nov 16.
Medical scribes are increasingly being utilized to reduce the time burden on clinicians for electronic health record (EHR) documentation. In this secondary analysis, researchers identified three themes for safe use of medical scribes: communication aspects, teamwork efforts, and provider characteristics.
Kwon CS, Duzyj C. Am J Perinatol. 2022;Epub Dec 30.
Effective teamwork is critical for patient safety and numerous training strategies exist for improving team dynamics. The labor and delivery unit of an American hospital offered Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) training to all physicians and nurses on the ward, and assessed perceptions of teamwork and safety both before and six months after training. Results were mixed, and physician and nurse perceptions of safety significantly differed.
Krombach JW, Zürcher C, Simon SG, et al. Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med. 2022;42:101186.
Checklists have been highlighted as a cognitive aid to decrease omissions of care in surgery and other routine and critical events. This study evaluated a pre- and post-anesthesia induction checklist to determine the omission rate and impact on patient safety. Use of the checklist reduced omission rates significantly during both pre- and post-induction periods. However omission remained high at 32% and 40%, respectively and use of the checklists remained low.
Wells JM, Walker VP. Health Promot Pract. 2023:152483992211451.
Addressing racism in healthcare is a patient safety priority. This article discusses how an active presence by hospital threat management systems (e.g., hospital-employed security, local law enforcement personnel) in pediatric emergency departments (EDs) can help ensure patient safety but also contributes to unsafe care due to racial stereotypes and threat perception among minority patients and caregivers. The authors outline patient-centered strategies at the individual-, intra-organizational-, and extra-organizational levels for responding to disruptive and violent events.
Weaver SH, de Cordova PB, Ravichandran A, et al. J Nurs Care Qual. 2023;38:203-210.
Nurse work environment has been linked to perceived safety culture and job satisfaction. This cross-sectional survey of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in New Jersey found lower job satisfaction and perceived patient safety culture among LPNs working in nursing homes compared to LPNs working in other settings.
Van der Voorden M, Ahaus K, Franx A. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e063175.
Patient engagement in healthcare is widely encouraged, but findings from some studies suggest that patient participation can have negative effects. This qualitative study with 16 patients and obstetric healthcare professionals examined the negative effects of patient participation in healthcare. Researchers identified four types of negative consequences from patient participation in safety – decreases in patient confidence, eroding of the patient-professional relationship, unwanted increases in patient responsibility, and excess time spent by professionals on the patient.
Salmon PM, King B, Hulme A, et al. Safety Sci. 2022;159:106003.
Organizations are encouraged to proactively identify patient safety risks and learn from failures. This article describes validity testing of systems-thinking risk assessment (Net-HARMS) to identify risks associated with patient medication administration and an accident analysis method (AcciMap) to analyze a medication administration error.
Reyes AM, Royan R, Feinglass J, et al. JAMA Surg. 2023;158:e227055.
Delays in diagnosis and treatment can lead to poor outcomes. In this population-based retrospective longitudinal study using inpatient and emergency department discharge data from four states, researchers found that non-Hispanic Black patients were at higher risk for delayed diagnosis of appendicitis compared to White patients. This increased risk for delayed diagnosis translated into higher risks for postoperative 30-day readmission rates. The researchers found that this risk was mitigated when Black patients received care at hospitals serving a more diverse patient population.
Moon SEJ, Hogden A, Eljiz K. BMJ Open Qual. 2022;11:e002057.
Health systems often implement innovative quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, but the longevity and sustainability of these initiatives remains a challenge. This scoping review explored the factors which enable and hinder sustainability of hospital-wide quality improvement (QI) initiatives. Three overarching themes were identified – the role of (1) people, including the organizational and leadership teams, as well as frontline staff implementing the QI initiatives, (2) processes, such as local and organizational integration and planning for sustainability, and (3) the organizational environment such as resources, infrastructure, and hospital culture.
Chew MM, Rivas S, Chesser M, et al. J Patient Saf. 2023;19:23-28.
Provision of enteral nutrition (EN) is a specialized process requiring careful interdisciplinary teamwork. After discovering significant issues with ordering, administration, and documentation of EN, this health system updated its workflows to improve safety. EN therapies were added to the electronic medication administration record (MAR) and the barcoding system was updated. After one year, all EN orders were barcode scanned and nearly all were documented as given or included a reason why they were not given.
Bushuven S, Trifunovic-Koenig M, Bentele M, et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19:16016.
Healthcare workers (HCWs) who are involved in serious adverse events may feel traumatized by those events, and many organizations have implemented “second victim” training programs to support their workers. This study sought to understand HCWs’ motivations to attend such trainings and a potential association with overconfidence. Understanding the association may help organizations develop effective training programs and increase motivation to attend them.
Abrams R, Conolly A, Rowland E, et al. J Adv Nurs. 2023;79:2189-2199.
Speaking up about safety concerns is an important component of safety culture. In this study, nurses in a variety of fields shared their experiences with speaking up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three themes emerged: the ability to speak up or not, anticipated consequences of speaking up, and responses, or lack thereof, from managers.

Grimm CA. Washington DC: Office of the Inspector General; Nov 2022. Report no. OEI-07-20-00500.

Misdiagnosis can result in inappropriate medication use. This report examined the overuse of antipsychotics in nursing homes and resident harms. These recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General include heightened evaluation and oversight of medication use and better documentation of diagnosis with medication orders as avenues for improvement.

Goldstein J. New York Times. January 23, 2023.

Active errors are evident when they occur, yet systemic weaknesses, if not addressed, allow them to repeat. This story examines poor epidural methods of one clinician that coincided with lack of organizational practitioner monitoring, unequitable maternal care for black women and clinician COVID fatigue to contribute to patient death.

ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. January 12, 2023;28(1):1-4.

The patient safety movement has raised awareness of the presence of multiple factors that align to result in patient harm, yet implementing processes to fully examine and change practice from that perspective is challenged. This article discusses this situation and provides recommendations to orient improvement efforts toward deeper investigation methods to identify latent contributors to care failure.
Healy A, Davidson C, Allbert J, et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2023;228:b8-b17.
The demand for, and acceptance of, telemedicine solutions to provide services has grown substantially in recent years as safety profiles for the services are being defined. This guideline examines its use in pregnancy-related care, discusses the benefits and suggests actions to ensure patient safety during these encounters such as development of appropriate metrics and methods for vital-sign monitoring.

Oakbrook Terrace, IL: Joint Commission and National Quality Forum: January 23, 2023. 

The annual Eisenberg Award recognizes leaders and organizations who have made substantial contributions toward patient safety and quality improvement. The 2022 honorees are Jason S. Adelman, MD, MS, North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA) and Parkland Health, Dallas County, Texas. The awards will be presented at the National Quality Forum's annual conference on February 20, 2023, in Washington, DC.
Classen DC, Longhurst CA, Thomas EJ. NPJ Digit Med. 2023;6:2.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used in an increasing range of health care situations to address a variety of care needs. This commentary examines the impact of AI on patient safety, in diagnosis, and on the limitations of AI that affect reliability.
Perspective on Safety February 1, 2023

This piece discusses patient safety concerns among members of the LGBTQ+ community which may inhibit access to needed healthcare and potential ways to provide patient-centered care and mitigate the risk of adverse events.

This piece discusses patient safety concerns among members of the LGBTQ+ community which may inhibit access to needed healthcare and potential ways to provide patient-centered care and mitigate the risk of adverse events.

Connor Wesley

Connor Wesley, RN, BSN, is a registered nurse in Tacoma, WA. In addition to his role as the Assistant Nurse Manager of the Emergency Department at MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, Connor lectures locally and nationally on providing healthcare to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) community. We interviewed Connor to discuss patient safety and the LGBTQ+ community.

WebM&M Case February 1, 2023

These cases describe the rare but dangerous complication of hematoma following neck surgery. The first case involves a patient with a history of spinal stenosis who was admitted for elective cervical discectomy and cervical disc arthroplasty who went into cardiopulmonary arrest three days post-discharge and could not be intubated due to excessive airway swelling and could not be resuscitated. Autopsy revealed a large hematoma at the operative site, causing compression of the upper airway, which was the suspected cause of respiratory and cardiac arrest.