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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 - 20 of 864 Results

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; September 2023. AHRQ Publication no. 23-0082.

The sharing of data is a core element of a learning health system. AHRQ has released the Network of Patient Safety Databases (NPSD) Chartbook 2023, which offers an overview of nonidentifiable, aggregated patient safety event and near-miss information, voluntarily reported by AHRQ-listed Patient Safety Organizations across the country between June 2014 and December 2022. The chartbook outlines the extent of harm reported, distribution of patient safety events, near misses, and unsafe conditions. 

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: November 2023.

Patient safety progress is dynamic, consistently producing evidence for application to generate improvements. This report is the fourth in a series funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to track a prioritized set of emerging and existing safety approaches to confirm their value and effectiveness. This report will be compiled as new conclusions are formulated. Each review will be posted to the collection as they are completed. The first three Making Healthcare Safer reports, published in 2001, 2013, and 2020, have each served as a consolidated evidence source for clinicians, health system leadership, researchers, and government agencies. Chapter protocols and the results of an examination on patient and family engagement and report cards as a surgical improvement mechanism are now available. 
Okemos, MI: Michigan Health & Hospital Association.
This publication annually reports on the successful outcomes of the Michigan Keystone Center collaborative activities. The achievements noted in the 2022-2023 data review include reduction of MHA Keystone Center PSO members have significantly reduced both fall and blood or blood product events reported to the state patient safety organization reporting system. Areas of focus for improvement work reported on include health equity, workforce wellbeing, and maternal health.
Agrawal A, Bhatt J, eds. Cham, Switzerland, Springer Nature; 2023. ISBN: 9783031359330.
This publication describes and analyzes clinical cases to illustrate patient safety concepts and types of medical errors to engage clinicians in improvement work. The second edition includes chapters devoted to safety challenges that emerged in prominence due to the COVID-19 pandemic (health disparities, inequities and nursing home care failures), as well as core topics such as high reliability, human factors engineering and the opioid epidemic. 
St Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Health.
The National Quality Forum has defined 29 never events—patient safety problems that should never occur, such as wrong-site surgery. Since 2003, Minnesota hospitals have been required to report such incidents. The 2022 report summarizes information about 572 adverse events that were reported, representing a significant increase in the year covered. Earlier reports prior to the last two years reflect a fairly consistent count of adverse events. The rise documented here is likely due to demands on staffing and care processes associated with COVID-19 and general increases in patient complexity and subsequent length of stay. Pressure ulcers and fall-related injuries were the most common incidents recorded. Reports from previous years are available.
Office of Health Care Quality. Baltimore, MD: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
This annual report summarizes never events in Maryland hospitals over the previous year. During fiscal year 2022, reported events increased due to the COVID pandemic, workforce shortages and other system demands. Events contributing to patient deaths and severe harm from preventable medical errors during the time period doubled. The authors recommend several corrective actions to enhance improvement work, including board and executive leadership engagement in safety work and application of high-reliability concepts to enhance safety culture.

Amin D, Cosby K. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; September 2023. Publication No. 23-0040-6-EF.

Psychological safety to report errors stems from a robust safety culture. This issue brief examines how these two concepts intersect to enhance the self-reporting of diagnostic errors to facilitate organizational learning from mistakes.

Grubenhoff JA, Cifra CL, Marshall T, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; September 2023. AHRQ Publication No. 23-0040-5-EF.

Unique challenges accompany efforts to study and reduce diagnostic error in children. This issue brief discusses addressing obstacles associated with testing and care access limitations that affect diagnosis across a variety of pediatric care environments. It also provides recommendations for building capacity to advance pediatric diagnostic safety. This issue brief is part of a series on diagnostic safety.

James C, Singh K, Valley TS, et al. Rockville, MD; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2023. AHRQ Publication No. 23-0040-4-EF.

As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) become established in health care, it is critical for clinicians and patients to effectively collaborate to use AI safely. This Issue Brief adds to a series of diagnostic-focused reports and presents a framework to guide patients and clinicians on working as team members when using AI and ML to make diagnostic decisions.
California Hospital Patient Safety Organization: Sacramento, CA; 2023.
Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) capture and analyze local data to inform learning among their 490 members. This report highlights 2022 trends, activities, and outcomes of initiatives at a 21-state PSO. Sections of the report include high-level review of falls and inequities, workplace violence issues, safe table data analysis, and CHPSO's new data platform capabilities.

Rosen M, Dy SM, Stewart CM, et al. Making Healthcare Safer IV Series.  Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2023. AHRQ Publication no. 23-EHC019-1.

Reducing preventable harm in healthcare settings remains a national priority. This report summarizes the results of the prioritization process used to identify patient safety practices meriting inclusion in the fourth installment of the Making Healthcare Safer (MHS) series (previous installments were published in 2001, 2013, and 2020). The fifteen-member Technical Expert Panel identified 27 priority patient safety practices for examination in the forthcoming report, including several practices that have not been covered in previous MHS reports (e.g., family/caregiver engagement, preventing non-ventilator associated pneumonia, supply chain disruption, high reliability, post-event communication programs).

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. July 2023.

Engaging patients to capture their insights after diagnostic error is one of the top patient safety strategies. This pair of issue briefs describes how organizations can use patient experience to inform improvements in diagnosis. Volume 1: Why Patient Narratives Matter highlights how patient perspectives offer unique information about the impacts of diagnosis-related events on patient care trajectories through the healthcare system. Volume 2: Eliciting Patient Narratives emphasizes that rigorous methods are needed to elicit patient experiences. Both briefs identify areas in which more research is needed about patients’ diagnostic experience.

Washington DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General; June 29, 2023. Report no. 22-01540-146.

This report analyzed a patient suicide at an emergency department and determined factors in the delay of care that contributed to patient harm. This report shares recommendations to address leadership failures and other deficiencies including poor screening and patient monitoring. Post-event gaps identified include poor root cause analysis, disclosure, and reporting activities.

Maxwell A. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; July 2023. Report no. OEI-06-21-00030.

Medical record review is a primary tactic to identify health care actions that contribute to patient harm. This report discusses the review process used in the 2018 report Adverse Events in Hospitals: A Quarter of Medicare Patients Experienced Harm to illustrate a successful review process for use by clinicians and researchers. It is a companion toolkit to the Clinical Guidance for Identifying Harm publication.

Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; June 28, 2023. Report no. 22-02725-132.

Delays in emergency care provision can contribute to patient harm. This analysis examined an instance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) delay and the poor response once the emergency was identified at an outpatient clinic. System-level issues flagged include incomplete incident records and follow up. Staff training, emergency notification, CPR process compliance, and debrief results completion were among the recommendations for improvement.

Maxwell A. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; July 2023. Report no. OEI-06-21-00031.

Trigger tools are a strategy for identifying and classifying patient injuries associated with care. This toolkit provides guidance for problem exploration on 29 specific clinical conditions. The document is designed to assist teams in the review of medical record data resources that can elucidate preventability and identify harm. This toolkit provides an 18-element trigger tool oriented to hospitals with worksheets to translate its use to a variety of care environments.

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.

Santhosh L, Cornell E, Rojas JC, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; June 2023. AHRQ Publication No. 23-0040-1-EF.

Care transitions present opportunities for errors. This issue brief highlights the risk of diagnostic errors during transitions in care, such as from the emergency department to the inpatient floor or from inpatient to outpatient care. The brief describes strategies to prevent and reduce these errors, such as diagnostic feedback or structured handoff tools.

Chicago, IL: American Hospital Association: May 2023.

Healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) are a common complication of hospital care. This report summarizes lessons learned at a series of infection prevention and control listening sessions. Challenges, opportunities for improvement, and impacts of COVID-19, both positive and negative, are presented.
Portland, OR: Oregon Patient Safety Commission.
This site provides data and analysis from two Oregon Patient Safety Commission patient safety initiatives: the Patient Safety Reporting Program (PSRP) and Early Discussion and Resolution (EDR) effort. The latest PSRP report discusses the Commission's collaborative efforts in 2022 to implement changes aligned with the Safer Together report. The 2022 EDR analysis discusses the uptake of the program to generate conversations with patients and providers after a patient safety incident occurred.