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New AHRQ SOPS® Workplace Safety Supplemental Items for Hospitals.

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Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; December 16, 2021.

The release of the Workplace Safety supplemental items for use in conjunction with the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture™ helps hospitals assess how their organizational culture supports workplace safety for providers and staff. This webinar provided background on the importance of workplace safety and introduce the Workplace Safety supplemental items.

An Investigation into the Death of Baby J at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust.

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Manchester, UK: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; October 2021.

This report examines a premature infant death associated with failings of antibiotic administration, deterioration recognition and action on family concerns both during treatment and post-incident. The report issues a series of recommendations building on standard remediation guidance in the United Kingdom.

Safer Services: A Toolkit for Specialist Mental Health Services and Primary Care.

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National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester; May 31, 2021

System failures require multifactorial assessment to install targeted improvements. This toolkit examines 10 areas of focus for organizations to assess the safety of mental health services in emergent and primary care settings to minimize patient suicide and self-harm. Areas of focus include post-discharge follow-up, admissions, and family engagement.

Malnutrition in Hospitalized Adults: A Systematic Review.

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Uhl S, Siddique SM, McKeever L, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2021. AHRQ Publication No. 21(22)-EHC035.

Patient malnutrition is an underrecognized threat to patient safety. This report provides a comprehensive evidence analysis on the patient malnutrition literature, the relationship of in-hospital malnutrition to patient harm across patient groups and tactics for measurement of the problem to design and assess the impact of interventions.

Digital Clinical Safety Strategy

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NHSX, NHS Digital, NHS England, et al. London, England: Crown Copyright; September 2021.

Digital clinical technologies hold promise for care improvement while contributing to potential failures due to the lack of collective guidance to assess and measure if they are safe. This document provides background on digital safety. It shares an approach that aligns with the United Kingdom system safety strategy to situate its priorities and support the strategy.

A Thematic Analysis of HSIB's First 22 Investigations.

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Farnborough, UK: Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; September 9, 2021.

In-depth failure investigations provide improvement insights for individuals and organizations alike. This report analyzes a collection of UK National Health Service incident examinations and provides recommendations for improvement on themes related to care transitions and access, decision making, communication, and point-of-care activity.

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Maternal Safety

Failures in Care Coordination and Reviewing a Patient's Death at the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System in Utah.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. July 29, 2021. Report No. 21-00657-197.

Care coordination effectiveness is tested by time, hierarchy, and practice silos. This report examines allegations affecting medication access enabled by poor communication, workforce absences, and the built environment challenges. While care coordination challenges in this case were unsubstantiated, the report highlights lack of clinical review and inaccurate analysis of patient death as concerns.

Unlocking Solutions in Imaging: Working Together to Learn from Failings in the NHS.

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London, UK: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; 2021. ISBN 9781528627016.

Lack of appropriate follow up of diagnostic imaging can result in care delays, patient harm, and death. This report summarizes an investigation of 25 imaging failures in the British National Health Service (NHS). The analysis identified communication and coordination issues resulting in lack of action and reporting of unanticipated findings to properly advance care. Recommendations to improve imaging in the NHS include use of previous analyses to enhance learning from failure.

Leadership To Improve Diagnosis: A Call to Action.

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Rosen M, Ali KJ, Buckley BO, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; June 2021. AHRQ Publication No. 20(21)-0040-5-EF.

The mindset on diagnostic error improvement has gone from a focus on individual skills to that of system factors. This issue brief highlights the influence health system executives have on amending the care environment to facilitate the most effective environment for diagnostic accuracy. This is part of a publication series examining diagnostic improvement across health care.

Wrong Site Surgery - Wrong Patient: Invasive Procedures in Outpatient Settings.

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Farnborough, UK: Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; June 3, 2021.

Wrong site/wrong patent surgery is a persistent healthcare never event. This report examines National Health Service (NHS) reporting data to identify how ambulatory patient identification errors contribute to wrong patient care. The authors recommend that the NHS use human factors methods to design control processes to target and manage the risks in the outpatient environment such as lack of technology integration, shared waiting area space, and reliance on verbal communication at clinic.

Testing and Labeling Medical Devices for Safety in the Magnetic Resonance (MR) Environment.

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Silver Spring, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health. May 20, 2021.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suites harbor unique hazards that can harm patients, should process missteps occur. This report shares assessment steps to assure that medical devices are labeled appropriately to support their safe use in the MRI environment and encourages organizational reporting of problems encountered when testing device use.

Care and Oversight Deficiencies Related to Multiple Homicides at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

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Washington DC: Department of Veterans Affairs. Office of Inspector General; May 11, 2021. Report No. 20-03593-140.

Health care system failures can enable unrecognized, persistent criminal behavior. This report examines conditions contributing to a serial murder case including weaknesses in mortality data analysis, clinical documentation review, patient safety incident reporting, medication security processes, and safety culture.

Diagnostic Safety Supplemental Item Set for Medical Office SOPS.

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Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. April 2021.

Safe diagnosis in medical offices is challenged by staff workload, communication, and poor information sharing. This Supplemental Item Set for the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Medical Office Survey (MOSOPS) examines elements contributing to time availability, testing and referrals, and provider and staff communication, and is to be used in conjunction with AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Medical Office Survey. The Diagnostic Safety Supplemental Item Set was released in time for the scheduled Fall 2021 MOSOPS data submission.

Taking action to close the loop on diagnostic error: a Constellation and SIDM Collaborative.

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Constellation, Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

The processes supporting safe and accurate diagnosis involve many steps that are prone to human error. This collaborative will engage teams to explore test result management and follow-up coordination to improve timeliness, collaboration, and communication to support safe care. The launch of the collaborative has been delayed due to COVID-19.

Meitheal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. issues voluntary nationwide recall of Cisatracurium Besylate Injection, USP 10mg per 5mL due to mislabeling.

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MedWatch Safety Alert. Silver Spring, MD: US Food and Drug Administration; January 27, 2021.

Labeling mistakes in the pharmaceutical production cycle can remain undetected until the affected medication reaches a patient. This alert reports a recall of a neuromuscular blocker for use in surgery due to it being mislabeled as a medication to increase blood pressure.

Incidence of Adverse Events in Indian Health Service Hospitals.

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Office of the Inspector General: Washington DC; December 2020. OIG report OEI-06-17-00530.

Challenges beset safe care delivery for indigenous peoples. This report examines factors contributing to adverse events in this patient population. Recommendations for improvement include an emphasis on harm monitoring and incident reporting. A related report examines the lack of application of maternity best practices in the Indian Health Service.

Deficiencies in the Veterans Crisis Line Response to a Veteran Caller Who Died.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General; November 17, 2020. Report No 19-08542-11.

Incomplete assessment of patient needs can miss opportunities to prevent patient harm. This report analyzes an incident where an intoxicated patient called a dedicated crisis support line yet preventive measures weren’t activated to avert an accidental overdose resulting in patient death. Recommendations for improvement include enhanced training for weekend and holiday staff, standardized safety plan development, and systemized internal review processes.

FDA advises health care professionals and patients about insulin pen packaging and dispensing.

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MedWatch Safety Alert. Silver Spring, MD: US Food and Drug Administration; October 13, 2020.

Insulin use errors are common despite their heightened potential for patient harm. This announcement highlights labeling and storage practices to reduce dispensing and administration errors associated with individual insulin pen use.

Making Complaints Count: Supporting Complaints Handling in the NHS and UK Government Departments.

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London, UK: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; July 15, 2020. ISBN 9781528620666.

Patient and family complaints can provide insights into system weaknesses if managed effectively. This report examined complaint handling at the United Kingdom National Health Service. The analysis found that lack of training, consistency and learning orientation reduced the effectiveness of the effort.

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