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Transgender patients who experience or perceive bias when receiving care may avoid or delay seeking care in the future. In this study, transgender patients reported on their experiences in viewing their electronic health record (EHR). In line with previous studies, transgender patients reported experiencing harms in several ways, such as providers using the wrong pronouns, wrong name, or wrong gender marker. The structure of the EHR (e.g., no separate fields for sex and gender) itself also created barriers to quality care.

Wrong blood in tube (WBIT) errors can result in serious diagnostic and treatment errors, but may go unrecognized by clinical staff. In this study, machine learning was used to identify potential WBIT errors which were then compared to manual review by laboratory staff. The machine learning models showed higher accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity compared to manual review. 

As use of health information technology (IT) applications expands, experts have raised patient safety concerns. Based on a literature review and expert feedback, this article summarizes approaches for assessing digital patient safety maturity in hospitals in order to maximize both health IT implementation and high quality, safe patient care.

Effective handoff communication is a key indicator of safe patient care. These authors outline a new model for handoff communication, integrating three theoretical frameworks addressing relevant inputs (i.e., individual organizational, environmental factors), mediators (e.g., communication, leadership), outcomes (e.g., patient, provider, teamwork, and organizational outcomes), and adaptation loops.

Concern for improved prescribing of opiates motivated the development of programs and policies that have inadvertently caused new problems. This commentary discusses the impact of nonopioid use during surgery as a patient preference. It discusses the potential for adverse impacts of the strategy while recognizing the unique situation of perioperative use of pain medications.

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an opioid prescribing guideline intended to reverse the increasing death rate from opioid overdoses. This study describes the development, implementation, and effect of a safe prescribing strategy (TOWER) in an HIV-focused primary care setting. Providers using TOWER were more adherent to the CDC guidelines, with no worsening patient-reported outcome measures.

Teaching clinical reasoning to medical students is a key strategy for reducing diagnostic errors. This paper describes a new longitudinal clinical reasoning curriculum taught in a US medical school’s first and second year of medical training. Students reported high self-efficacy after completing the curriculum; however, a competency audit revealed room for improvement in including system-related aspects of care.

Dashboards provide a way to display patient safety data (e.g., medication safety) in real time. This narrative review and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) of existing patient safety dashboards can form the basis for developing future dashboards.

Biases in decision support technologies precipitate racial inequities. This commentary discusses how algorithms in machine learning contribute to inaccuracies in the care of persons of color and the displaced. Legal actions to mitigate racial biases in decision making programs and implementation steps toward improvement are discussed.

A 2011 systematic review identified nine tools to assess patient safety competence in nurses. This review identified multiple instruments released since that review; the most frequently used was the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS). The authors suggest future research should consider including ethics in patient safety and responsiveness to change over time.

Clinical reasoning is an essential component of diagnostic safety. This paper describes the development of a new curriculum to improve clinical reasoning skills and processes in medical students. The curriculum uses several educational strategies (e.g., classroom teaching, simulation training, patient encounters) during pre-clerkship and clerkship to improve clinical reasoning skills across several domains (theory, patient assessment, diagnosis, and shared decision-making).

Computerized provider order entry has become standard practice for most medication ordering. This article reports on the safety and efficiency of ordering mixed-drug infusions before and after implementation of electronic prescribing. After implementation, rates of prescription errors, time to process discharge orders, and time between prescription and administration all decreased.

Patient portals allow patients and their caregivers to read clinical notes, view test results, and communicate with their provider, with the goal of improving patient safety. This scoping review found limited evidence of improved patient safety with the use of patient portals. Additionally, the authors found multiple naming conventions, such as patient portal, personal health record, and personal medical record.

Speech recognition software is a potential strategy to reduce documentation burden and burnout. This study compared the accuracy handwritten nursing notes versus online and offline speech recognition software. Findings indicate that the speech recognition software was accurate but created more errors than handwritten notes.

Patient exposure to allergens healthcare settings, such as latex or certain medications, can lead to adverse outcomes. Based on data from an incident reporting system, researchers in this study developed a system for classifying allergy-related safety events. Classification categories include: (1) incomplete or inaccurate EHR documentation, (2) human factors, such as overridden allergy alerts, (3) alert limitation or malfunction, (4) data exchange and interoperability failures, and (5) issues with EHR system default options. This classification system can be used to support improvements at the individual, team, and systems levels.