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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 1224 Results
Washington A, Randall J. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023;10:883-891.
Discrimination can contribute to health inequities and exacerbate disparities in cancer care. In this study, researchers used a survey tool and qualitative interviews to explore the experiences of perceived discrimination for Black women and how it impacts cervical cancer prevention. Study findings suggest that perceived high degrees of discrimination create mistrust between patients and providers and can impact health outcomes.
Gjøvikli K, Valeberg BT. J Patient Saf. 2023;19:93-98.
Closed-loop communication prevents confusion and ensures the healthcare team is operating under a shared mental model. In order to investigate closed-loop communication in real-life care (as opposed to simulations), researchers observed 60 interprofessional teams, including 120 anesthesia personnel. The number of callouts, check-backs, and confirmations were analyzed, revealing only 45% of callouts resulted in closed-loop communication.
Winqvist I, Näppä U, Rönning H, et al. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2023;18:2185964.
Improving care transitions is a patient safety priority. Based on interviews with 21 nurses in Sweden, this study explored nursing concerns regarding transitions of care from inpatient to home healthcare settings in rural areas. Participants cited concerns regarding care coordination, communication, and logistics.
Gross TK, Lane NE, Timm NL, et al. Pediatrics. 2023;151:e2022060971-e2022060972.
Emergency room crowding is a persistent factor that degrades safety for patients of all ages. This collection provides background, best practices, and recommendations to reduce emergency department crowding and its negative impact on pediatric care. The publications examine factors that influence crowding and improvement at the input, departmental, and hospital/outpatient stages of emergency care.
Oksholm T, Gissum KR, Hunskår I, et al. J Adv Nurs. 2023;Epub Feb 10.
Transitions of care can increase risks for patient safety events. This systematic review examined the effectiveness of interventions aimed to increase patient safety during transitions of care between the hospital and home. The authors identified several interventions from previously published studies which increased patient safety and/or patient satisfaction and identified factors that contribute to effective transitions of care (i.e., nurse follow-up, pre-discharge patient education, and contact with local healthcare services).
Kuzma N, Khan A, Rickey L, et al. J Hosp Med. 2023;Epub Feb 14.
I-PASS, a structured hand-off tool, can reduce preventable adverse events during transitions of care. Previously published studies have shown that Patient and Family-Centered (PFC) I-PASS rounds reduced preventable and non-preventable adverse events (AE) in hospitalized children. This study presents additional analysis, comparing AE rates in children with complex chronic conditions (CCC) to those without. Results show a reduction in AE in both groups, with no statistically significant differences between the groups, suggesting PFC I-PASS may be generalizable to broader groups of patients without needing modification.
Alper E, O'Malley TA, Greenwald J. UpToDate. February 3, 2023.
This review examines hospital discharge, details elements of the process that can increase risk of readmission, and reveals interventions to improve safety.
Sempere L, Bernabeu P, Cameo J, et al. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2023;Epub Jan 31.
Women often experience misdiagnosis and diagnostic delays due to process failures and implicit bias. This multicenter cohort study including 190 patients found that women were more likely to experience delays in diagnosis and misdiagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, as compared to men. Researchers found that these inequities in misdiagnosis occurred across all healthcare settings (emergency department, primary care, gastroenterology, and hospital admission).
Hoffmann DE, Fillingim RB, Veasley C. J Law Med Ethics. 2022;50:519-541.
Women’s pain has been underestimated compared to men’s pain, and treatments differ based on gender. This commentary revisits the findings from the 2001 article The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain. The authors state progress has been made in the past 20 years, but disparities still exist. Additional research is needed, particularly into chronic pain conditions that are more common in women.

Järvinen TLN, Rickert J, Lee MJ, et al. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2013-2023.

This quarterly commentary explores a wide range of subjects associated with patient safety, such as the impact of disruptive behavior on teams, the value of apologies, and safety challenges due to COVID-19. Older materials are available online for free.
Baluyot A, McNeill C, Wiers S. Patient Safety. 2022;4:18-25.
Transitions from hospital to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) remain a patient safety challenge. This quality improvement (QI) project included development of a structured handoff tool to decrease the wait time for receipt of controlled medications and intravenous (IV) antibiotics and time to medication administration. The project demonstrated significant improvements in both aims and can be replicated in other SNFs.
Riman KA, Harrison JM, Sloane DM, et al. Nurs Res. 2023;72:20-29.
Operational failures – breakdowns in care processes, such as distractions or situational constraints – can impact healthcare delivery. This cross-sectional analysis using population-based survey data from 11,709 nurses examined the relationship between operational failures, patient satisfaction, nurse-reported quality and safety, and nurse job outcomes. Findings indicate that operational failures negatively impact patient satisfaction, quality and safety, and contribute to poor nurse job outcomes, such as burnout.  
Svedahl ER, Pape K, Austad B, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;Epub Dec 15.
Inappropriate referrals and unnecessary hospital admissions are ongoing patient safety problems. This cohort study set in Norway examined the impact of emergency physician referral thresholds from out-of-hours services on patient outcomes.  
Kaplan HM, Birnbaum JF, Kulkarni PA. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022;9:421-429.
Premature diagnostic closure, also called anchoring bias, relies on initial diagnostic impression without continuing to explore differential diagnoses. This commentary proposes a cognitive forcing strategy of “endpoint diagnosis,” or continuing to ask “why” until additional diagnostic evaluations have been exhausted. The authors describe four common contexts when endpoint diagnoses are not pursued or reached.
Ahmajärvi K, Isoherranen K, Venermo M. BMJ Open. 2022;12:e062673.
Diagnostic errors continue to be a source of patient harm. This retrospective study identified patient- and organizational-level factors contributing to misdiagnosis of chronic wounds in primary care. Less than half of patients referred from primary care to specialist wound care teams had the correct diagnosis. Notably, 36% of patients who presented to primary care had signs of infection, however 61% received antibiotics, raising concerns of antibiotic overuse.
Pagani K, Lukac D, Olbricht SM, et al. Arch Dermatol Res. 2022;Epub Nov 10.
Delayed referrals from primary care providers to specialty care can lead to delayed diagnoses and patient harm. This retrospective analysis examined differences in timely versus delayed referrals for urgent skin cancer evaluations at one institution. Among 320 referrals occurring in 2018, 38% of evaluations occurred 31 days or more after the referral and nearly 11% of referrals were never completed. Delayed referrals were more common among patients who did not speak English and racial/ethnic minorities.
Pitts SI, Yang Y, Thomas BA, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022;29:2101-2104.
The CancelRx tool is designed to improve communication between electronic health record (EHR) systems and pharmacy dispensing software. However, interoperability issues can limit the tool’s usefulness and result in inadvertent dispensing of discontinued medications. This evaluation of discontinued medications at one health systems over a one-month period found that only one-third to one-half of discontinued medications were e-prescribed using the same EHR system and would result in a CancelRx message to the pharmacy; the remainder of discontinued medications were patient-reported or reconciled from outside sources.
Rosen A, Carter D, Applebaum JR, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e1219-e1225.
The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging impacts on care delivery and patient safety. This study examined the relationship between critical care clinician experiences related to patient safety during the pandemic and COVID-19 caseloads during the pandemic. Findings suggest that as COVID-19 caseloads increased, clinicians were more likely to perceive care as less safe.
Starmer AJ, Spector ND, O'Toole JK, et al. J Hosp Med. 2023;18:5-14.
I-PASS is a structured handoff tool to enhance communication during patient transfers and improve patient safety. This study found that I-PASS implementation at 32 hospitals decreased major and minor handoff-related adverse events and improved key handoff elements (e.g., frequency of handoffs with high verbal quality) across provider types and settings.
Patient Safety Innovation November 16, 2022

Appropriate follow-up of incidental abnormal radiological findings is an ongoing patient safety challenge. Inadequate follow-up can contribute to missed or delayed diagnosis, potentially resulting in poorer patient outcomes. This study describes implementation of an electronic health record-based referral system for patients with incidental radiologic finding in the emergency room.