The PSNet Collection: All Content

The AHRQ PSNet Collection comprises an extensive selection of resources relevant to the patient safety community. These resources come in a variety of formats, including literature, research, tools, and Web sites. Resources are identified using the National Library of Medicine’s Medline database, various news and content aggregators, and the expertise of the AHRQ PSNet editorial and technical teams.

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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 Results

Harm Caused by Delays in Transferring Patients to the Right Place of Care.

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Farnborough, UK: Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; August 2023.

Handoffs between prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) providers and hospital emergency departments (EDs) can be suboptimal, which increases patient harm potential. This report examines National Health Service discharge delays. It suggests a systemic approach is needed to address flow and capacity factors that contribute to ineffective and unsafe interfacility discharge and transfer.

Deficient Care of a Patient Who Died by Suicide and Facility Leaders' Response at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia.

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Washington DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General; May 10, 2023. Report no. 22-01116-110.

Death of a patient by suicide is a sentinel event. This report examined one incident and identified care deficiencies associated with lack of mental health referrals and pain management follow-up. In addition, post-event process gaps occurred, impacting learning and resolution such as a delay in the inquiry launch, peer review, and clinical review of the incident. Claims that the facility purposely sought to hide information that the suicide happened were unsubstantiated.

Clinical Investigation Booking Systems Failures: Written Communications in Community Languages.

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Farnborough, UK: Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; April 2023.

Gaps in patient information processes can result in missed care opportunities that contribute to harm. This report examines language discordance in National Health Service written scheduling communications and its contribution to patients being lost to follow up. The primary improvement recommendation is to enhance the ability of providers to recognize primary languages of patients and provide written instructions accordingly.

Death Inside Lemuel Shattuck Hospital: A Case Study on Medical Treatment for Persons with Mental Health Disabilities.

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Massachusetts Protection and Advocacy. Boston, MA: Disability Law Center; May 8, 2023.

Behavioral health patients present unique challenges in their care that can contribute to unintended harm. The analysis examines a delayed diagnosis, referral, and treatment of skin cancer that contributed to the death of a patient. Suggestions for improvement included conducting a root cause analysis to identify systemic problems, use of photography to track skin lesion progression, and implementation of a warm handoff process to improve staff communication.

Care Delivery within Community Mental Health Teams.

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Farnborough, UK: Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; March 2023.

Patient suicide is a sentinel event. This report examines a suicide incident that identified problems with risk assessment and identification, family engagement, and medication management in the context of mental health provision when supporting patients in psychological distress.

Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Summary Report: Evaluation of Care Coordination in Veterans Health Administration Facilities, Fiscal Year 2021.

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Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; September 15, 2022. Report no. 22-00815-232.

Care coordination failures reduce the effectiveness of communication, information transfer, and patient monitoring to the determent of safety. This report examines the current state of interfacility transfers in 45 veteran facilities to find that, while process requirements were basically met, improvements could be made to medication list transfer, nursing communication, and general service evaluation.

Curated Libraries

Maternal Safety

September 13, 2021

Ensuring maternal safety is a patient safety priority. This library reflects a curated selection of PSNet content focused on improving maternal safety. Included resources explore strategies with the potential to improve maternal care delivery and outcomes, such as high reliability, collaborative initiatives, teamwork, and trigger tools.

Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World.

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Cleghorn E. New York, NY: Dutton; 2021. ISBN: 9780593182956.

Women have been affected by implicit bias that undermines the safety of their care and trust in the medical system. This book shares the history anchoring the mindsets driving ineffective care for women and a discussion of the author’s long-term lupus misdiagnosis.

Deficiencies in Care, Care Coordination, and Facility Response to a Patient Who Died by Suicide, Memphis VA Medical Center in Tennessee.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General; September 3, 2020. Report No 19-09493-249.

Discontinuities in mental health care are a patient safety concern. This report analyzes how documentation gaps, medication reconciliation problems, and poor care coordination contributed to the suicide of a patient who presented at an emergency room, was screened there, and referred to a clinic for further care that was not completed.

Inadequate Emergency Department Care and Physician Misconduct at the Washington DC VA Medical Center.

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Office of the Inspector General. Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs; July 28, 2020. Report Number 19-07507-214.

Patient suicide is a never event. This report analyzes the death of a veteran after presenting at an emergency room with suicidal ideation. The analysis found lack of both suicide prevention policy adherence and appropriate assessment, as well as a lack concern for the patient’s condition contributed to the failure.

The Diagnosis of Ectopic Pregnancy.

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Farnborough, UK: Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; March 2020.

Missed or delayed diagnosis in maternal care can result in serious harm to both the mother and the child. This report analyzes a delayed diagnosis ectopic pregnancy incident and found that referral and discharge missteps contributed to the error.

Deficiencies in Care Coordination and Facility Response to a Patient Suicide at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minnesota.

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Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. January 7, 2020. Report No. 19-00468-67.

Systemic weaknesses challenge safe care in Veterans Affairs health systems facilities. This report analyzed a patient suicide at one medical center and determined contributors to the failure. This report shares recommendations to address deficiencies including improved communication across the care continuum and reliably acting on root cause analysis results.

Investigation into Detection of Retained Vaginal Swabs and Tampons Following Childbirth.

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Farnborough, UK; Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch; December 18, 2019.

Maternal care during and after childbirth is at risk for never events including retained foreign objects. This analysis of a sentinel event involving a retained surgical tampon after childbirth discusses communication, fatigue, and process factors that contributed to the incident. The report suggests improved handoffs as one improvement strategy.

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