This newly issued follow up to the seminal AHRQ Making Health Care Safer report (first published in 2001 and updated in 2013 critically examines the evidence supporting 47 separate patient safety practices chosen for the high-impact harms they address. It includes diagnostic errors, failure to rescue, sepsis, infections due to multi-drug resistant organisms, adverse drug events and nursing-sensitive conditions. The report discusses the evidence on cross-cutting safety practices, including safety culture, teamwork and team training, clinical decision support, patient and family engagement, cultural competency, staff education and training, and monitoring, audit and feedback. The report provides recommendations for clinicians and decision-makers on effective patient safety practices.

This AHRQ-funded Institute of Medicine study identifies solutions to problems in hospital, nursing home, and other health care organization work environments that threaten patient safety in nursing care. The report provides a blueprint of actions for all health care organizations that rely on nurses. The report's findings and recommendations address the related issues of management practices, workforce capability, work design, and organizational safety culture.