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Charlie Bourg was on the lookout for veterans harmed by a new VA computer system. He didn’t expect to be one of them.

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Donovan-Smith O. Spokesman-Review. September 11, 2022.

Electronic health record (EHR) system issues degrade the data sharing and communication needed to inform safe patient care. This newspaper feature discusses problems with the new Veterans Affairs EHR system from the patient and family perspective in the context of diagnostic and treatment delay.

How medical jargon can make COVID health disparities even worse.

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Kritz F. Shots. National Public Radio; May 24, 2021.

Health literacy efforts address challenges related to both language and effective communication tactics. This story discussed how lack of language and information clarity reduced patient education effectiveness during the pandemic and highlights several efforts to address them including information product translation services.

Cancer diagnoses delayed among prisoners in Washington state.

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Medscape Medical News. May 12, 2021.

Delays and mistakes in health care for distinct patient populations hold improvement lessons for the broader system. This news story highlights problems in correctional system cancer diagnoses and treatment that may indicate other types of prison care delivery problems.

‘You’re going to release him when he was hurting himself?’

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Dahlberg B. Kaiser Health News. September 29, 2020.

This story discusses failures related emergency psychiatric assessment, including premature discharge, implicit bias, patient management discontinuity and inappropriate physical restraint that contributed to the death of a patient at risk for suicide.

Sent home to die.

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Waldman A, Kaplan J. ProPublica. 2020.

Hospitals have been deeply challenged to provide effective care during the COVID crisis. This article discusses how rationing and ineffective protection for families and patients may have contributed to preventable death and the spread of the virus in families due to unnecessary referrals of patients to home care and hospice.

Doctors turned my sister away; less than two years later she died of cervical cancer.

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Harvey-Jenner C. Cosmopolitan. August 27, 2020.

Implicit biases are known to impact effective diagnosis. This story highlights how dismissed concerns resulted in a delay in cancer diagnosis that contributed to the death of a young woman.

Fear of Covid-19 leads other patients to decline critical treatment.

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Hafner K. New York Times. 2020;May 25.

The uncertainties surrounding coronavirus transmission and treatment are causing patients with known conditions to forgo needed medical care. This article outlines how COVID-19 fear and anxiety are primary contributing factors in patient decisions to delay transplants and other necessary treatments.

As COVID-19 bears down, doctors confront difficult choices on elective surgeries.

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Alesse L, Dukakis A, Tatum S, Mosk M. ABC News. March 20, 2020.

Delays in elective surgery and other procedures have the potential to lessen safe patient care. This news story describes the decision-making dilemma for physicians to limit patient access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their concern is that the delays have the potential to result in diagnostic and treatment service deviations that could result in harm.

A 25-year-old teacher died after waiting hours at the ER. She's not the only one who saw delays.

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Linnane R, Diedrich J. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. February 25, 2020.

Delays in emergency room (ER) triage and assessment contribute to wide range of failures that degrade patient safety. This news story highlights the findings of a government report highlighting overcrowding and production pressures as factors resulting in the death of a patient waiting for care who initially presented at the ER with symptoms of heart attack.

Still Failing the Frail.

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Simmons-Ritchie D. Penn Live. November 15, 2018.

Nursing home patients are vulnerable to preventable harm due to poor safety culture, insufficient staffing levels, lack of regulation enforcement, and misaligned financial incentives. This news investigation reports on how poor practices resulted in resident harm in Pennsylvania nursing homes and discusses strategies for improvement, such as enhancing investigation processes.

Paralyzed by errors, this Xbox designer is taking on hospital safety.

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Aleccia J.

Patients who experience harm while receiving medical care can serve as powerful advocates for patient safety. This news article reports on a patient who became engaged in working to redesign processes to improve patient safety after he became paralyzed from the chest down due to a cascade of communication errors.

Hospital discharge: it's one of the most dangerous periods for patients.

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Rau J. Washington Post. April 29, 2016.

Transitions in care between inpatient and outpatient settings are an increasing concern for patient safety. Reporting on a fatal medication error that was missed by a patient's pharmacist and home health nurses, this newspaper article discusses various risks associated with hospital-to-home transitions such as insufficient case management and communication.

Service members are left in dark on health errors.

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LaFraniere S. New York Times. April 19, 2015.

Reporting on a case involving an overlooked test result that contributed to the death of a patient in the military medical system, this newspaper article highlights how insufficient transparency can prevent patients and their families from learning about what happened during their care and hinder opportunities to recognize processes in need of improvement.

Living with cancer: not talking about medical mistakes.

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Gubar S.

This newspaper article describes how surgical complications, health care–associated infections, and ineffective patient–provider communication contributed to a patient's experience with harm and suggests that transparency around the incident and preoperative patient briefings could have improved the situation.

Preventing medical errors: how to proceed with caution.

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Shaw G. The Hearing Journal. 2014;67.

This article provides an overview of patient safety issues in audiology such as diagnostic error and incomplete documentation. The author reviews steps individual clinicians can take to respond to errors and malpractice claims.

In military care, a pattern of errors but not scrutiny.

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LaFraniere S, Lehren AW. New York Times. June 28, 2014.

Reporting on serious lapses in the care provided by the military health system, this newspaper article highlights how systemic problems, such as inadequate review of incidents, poor communication, and lack of transparency, can contribute to patient harm.

The short life and lonely death of Sabrina Seelig.

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Hartocollis A.

This newspaper article reports on the missteps that contributed to the death of a young woman after she was hospitalized in an incident reminiscent of Libby Zion.

An infection, unnoticed, turns unstoppable.

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Dwyer J. New York Times. July 11, 2012:A15.

This newspaper article reports on gaps in communication and a missed sepsis diagnosis that led to a patient's death.

Ambulance crew in Chicago got lost trying to find hospital.

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News Services. Washington Post. October 25, 2007

An emergency crew from a suburb failed to efficiently transport a marathon runner in cardiac arrest to the nearest emergency room in central Chicago.

Five hospitals release data on inspections.

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Kowalczyk L

This article reports on the results from Joint Commission site inspections of five Boston-area hospitals.

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