Detailing results of an error reporting initiative in New Jersey, these reports explain how consumers can use this information and provides tips for safety when obtaining health care. A section highlights findings related to patient safety indicators.

Antibiotic overuse is a contributor to nosocomial infection. This report discusses problems associated with antibiotic prescribing during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Systemic problems arising from the situation include disparities associated with antibiotic administration and unneeded receipt of medications by some patients.

Misuse of prescription opiates in the US continues to be a patient safety concern.  This data brief summarizes characteristics of the Medicare Part D population that routinely use opiates. It provides insights into the prevalence of patients diagnosed with opioid use disorders and others at risk for abuse that receive prescriptions for opioids.  A recommendation shared to address the situation is to assure patients diagnosed with the disorder get the medication-assisted treatment they need.

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.

Surgical volume standards are a metric used to assess the needed experience in performing distinct types of procedures. This report analyzed data from over 2,100 hospitals and found approximately half to be deficient in fully adhering to the standards while implementing mechanisms to minimize unnecessary surgeries

Checklists are integrated into error reduction strategies and healthcare team communication efforts worldwide but implementation and impact of the tool varies widely. This report examines the use of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist and barriers to its uptake which include lack of effective staff introduction to the content, misperceptions about the time needed to use the tool and ineffective local contextualization of the content and process.

Clinician burnout is a known contributor to unsafe care. This report summarizes evidence on the causes and impacts of clinician burnout. The authors share six recommendations for improvement which include redesign of the learning environment, technologies, and support services for clinicians.

Hospitalized patient suicide is a sentinel event. This report describes an investigation into a patient suicide incident in the Veterans Affairs health system that found numerous conditions that contributed to the event, such as nonoperational security cameras, ineffective rounding policy, and lack of leadership knowledge of safety practices in mental health units. Recommendations for improvement include staff education, standardization of rounding, and robust oversight of frontline practice.

The perioperative setting is a high-risk environment. This publication discusses the clinical foundations and application of safety concepts in perioperative practice. Chapters cover topics such as human factors, error management, cognitive aids, safety culture, and teamwork.

Guidelines provide practitioners with evidence-based solutions. This report outlines use of a measure to assess adherence to six of the recommendations in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline for opioid prescribing in primary care.

Overprescribing is a common problem that contributes to patient harm. This report examines financial, clinical, and societal trends of medication overuse and inappropriate polypharmacy in older Americans. A culture of prescribing, deficits in information and knowledge, and fragmented care contribute to the problem. The report provides interventions to improve the safety of prescribing, including developing deprescribing guidelines, raising awareness among providers and patients about medication overload, and implementing team-based care models.

This publication provides various strategies to drive innovation in patient safety, including how to eliminate unsafe practices.

Pain management has emerged as a complex safety concern. This report discusses four organizational prerequisites to improve pain management: prioritization, education, patient- and family-centeredness, and effective systems of care. Recommended steps for leadership to successfully implement safe pain management include obtaining commitment, convening a multidisciplinary working group, developing a plan, and executing the plan.

Despite enhancements in medical imaging technology, diagnostic radiologists are still susceptible to uncertainty, bias, and overconfidence that hinder accurate image assessment. Discussing the scope and impact of human error in diagnostic radiology, this book explores the future of advanced information technologies in diagnostic radiology and provides recommendations to reduce the effect of human fallibility on imaging interpretation.

Record matching problems can have serious clinical impacts on patients. This report explores how to optimize demographic data integrity to improve patient record matching, as identifying information is increasingly integrated into shared record keeping systems. The investigation determined strategies to improve matching such as implementing standard data formats and disseminating best practices.

Hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) represent a significant source of preventable harm to patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services financially penalizes hospitals with increased numbers of HACs through the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. This policy of nonpayment has prompted hospitals to focus significant resources on preventing HACs. This AHRQ report found a reduction in HACs from 99 per 1000 acute care discharges to 86 per 1000 discharges between 2014 and 2017, representing a decrease in 910,000 HACs and savings of $7.7 billion. Declines in certain HACs such as adverse drug events and Clostridium difficile infections were noted to be more significant as compared to others. A past WebM&M commentary highlighted the clinical significance of HACs and described an incident involving a patient who developed a pressure ulcer while in the hospital.

Polypharmacy, chronic conditions, and mental health needs can contribute to misuse of opioids. This data analysis from the AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project found that opioid-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits for older Americans increased substantially between 2010 and 2015.

Teamwork can contribute to a healthy and respectful work environment. This discussion paper reviews evidence-based characteristics of high-functioning teams and barriers to their optimization in health care. Strategies to enhance teamwork and consequently clinician well-being include improvements in workflow, health information technologies, and financial models to train and sustain teams.

The seminal 2001 report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, assessed deficiencies in the quality of health care in the United States across six key dimensions of care: safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm examines the human toll of poor-quality care worldwide, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries. The report documents health systems rife with quality and safety problems, estimating that 134 million adverse events (resulting in 2.5 million deaths) occur in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries yearly. High levels of both underuse and overuse of care are also documented in different settings. The authors give broad recommendations for strengthening health systems worldwide using the systems approach and principles of quality improvement. In addition, the report suggests modifying the original six dimensions of quality to include accessibility, affordability, and integrity.