The PSNet Collection

TeamSTEPPS Master Training Virtual Course.

AHA Team Training. January 26--March 30, 2022.

The TeamSTEPPS program was developed to support effective communication and teamwork in health care. This online series will prepare participants to guide their organizations through implementation of the TeamSTEPPS program. It is designed for individuals that are new to TeamSTEPPS processes.

Maternal Safety

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, care standardization, teamwork, unit-based safety initiatives, and trigger tools.

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

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.

Nurse work environment and its impact on reasons for missed care, safety climate, and job satisfaction: a cross-sectional study.

Dutra CK dos R, Guirardello E de B. J Adv Nurs. 2021;77(5):2398-2406.

This cross-sectional study describes the relationship between nurse work environment and missed nursing care, safety culture, and job satisfaction. Nurses who perceived a positive work environment reported reduced reasons for missed nursing care, an improved safety culture, and increased job satisfaction. Reasons for missed care were primarily related to lack of leadership support and resources. Nurse managers can increase perception of a positive work environment by providing additional support and adequate human and material resources.

Assessing reasons for decreased primary care access for individuals on prescribed opioids: an audit study.

Lagisetty P, Macleod C, Thomas J, et al. Pain. 2021;162(5):1379-1386.

Inappropriate prescribing of opioids is a major contributor to the ongoing opioid epidemic. This study involved simulated patients with chronic opioid use who called primary care clinics in need of a new provider because their previous physician had retired or stopped prescribing opioids. Findings indicate that primary care providers were generally unwilling to prescribe opioids to patients whose histories are suggestive of misuse, which may raise access to care concerns and cause potential unintended harm for some patients.

Deficiencies in Inpatient Mental Health Care Coordination and Processes Prior to a Patient's Death by Suicide, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital in Columbia, Missouri.

Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. January 5, 2021. Report No. 20-01521-48.

This investigation examined care coordination, screening and other factors that contributed to a patient death by suicide shortly after discharge from a Veteran’s Hospital. Event reporting, disclosure and evaluation gaps were identified as process weaknesses to be addressed.

TeamSTEPPS for the COVID-19 Crisis.

AHA Team Training.

The COVID-19 crisis requires cooperation and coordination of organizations and providers to address the persistent challenges presented by the pandemic. This on-demand video collection reinforces core TeamSTEPPS; methods that enhance clinician teamwork and communication skills to manage care safety during times of crisis.

Speaking up about patient-perceived serious visit note errors: patient and family experiences and recommendations.

Lam BD, Bourgeois FC, Dong ZJ, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021;28(4):685-694.

Providing patients access to their medical records can improve patient engagement and error identification. A survey of patients and families found that about half of adult patients and pediatric families who perceived a serious mistake in their ambulatory care notes reported it, but identified several barriers to reporting (e.g. no clear reporting mechanism, lack of perceived support).

Cancer diagnostic delay in Northern and Central Italy during the 2020 lockdown due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Ferrara G, De Vincentiis L, Ambrosini-Spaltro A, et al. Am J Clin Pathol. 2021;155(1):64-68.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to patients delaying or forgoing necessary health care. Comparing the same 10-week period in 2018, 2019 and 2020, researchers used data from seven hospitals in northern-central Italy to assess the impact of COVID-19 on cancer diagnoses. Compared to prior years, cancer diagnoses overall fell by 45% in 2020. Researchers noted the largest decrease in cancer diagnoses among skin, colorectal, prostate, and bladder cancers.

The Economics of Patient Safety Part III: Long-term Care: Valuing Safety for the Long Haul.

de Bienassis K, Llena-Nozal A, Klazinga N for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Paris, France: OECD Publishing; 2020. OECD Health Working Papers, No. 121.

Adverse events in long term care facilities are acerbated due to staffing, training and financial challenges. This report examined the costs of avoidable problems in long term care and suggests prevention strategies that center on workforce skill development and safety culture improvement.

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

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.

Sent home to die.

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.

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.

Affordable Housing Community Offers Seniors Onsite Health Care Coordination and Support, Reducing Hospital Admissions and Falls and Improving Resident Health

June 12, 2020

The Support and Services at Home (SASH®) program provides onsite assistance to help senior citizens (and other Medicare beneficiaries) remain in their homes as they age. Using evidence-based practices, a multidisciplinary, onsite team conducts an initial health assessment, creates an individualized care plan based on each participant’s self-identified goals, provides onsite nursing and care coordination with local partners, and schedules community activities to support health and wellness. A multi-year evaluation of the program found that total Medicare expenditures per SASH participant were $1,100-$1,450 lower per year compared to their non-SASH peers. It also found that participants were less likely to report issues with medication self-management compared to non-participants, and that Medicaid expenditures for long-term care for a subset of SASH participants were $400 less per person per year.

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

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.

Public sector organizational failure: a study of collective denial in the UK national health service.

Hendy J, Tucker DA. J Bus Ethics. 2020;2021;172:691–706.

Using the events at the United Kingdom’s Mid Staffordshire Trust hospital as a case study, the authors discuss the impact of ‘collective denial’ on organizational processes and safety culture. The authors suggest that safeguards allowing for self-reflection and correction be implemented early in the safety reporting process, and that employees be granted power to speak up about safety concerns.

Cultural Competence and Patient Safety

December 27, 2019

This piece describes cultural competence in the context of patient safety and highlights several approaches and projects that may help to improve cultural competence.

In Conversation With... Cindy Brach

December 27, 2019

Cindy Brach, MPP is a Senior Healthcare Researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and is the Co-Chair of the HHS Health Literacy Workgroup. We spoke with her about the role of cultural competence in patient safety.

"Do You Want Everything Done?": Clarifying Code Status

December 18, 2019

A 63-year-old woman with hematemesis was admitted by a 2nd year medical resident for an endoscopy. The resident did not spend adequate time discussing her code status and subsequently, made a series of errors that failed to honor the patient’s preferences and could have resulted in an adverse outcome for this relatively healthy woman.

A randomized experimental study to assess the effect of language on medical students' anxiety due to uncertainty.

Simpkin AL, Murphy Z, Armstrong KA. Diagnosis (Berl). 2019;6(3):269-276.

Whether or not word selection during handoffs affects clinician anxiety and diagnostic uncertainty remains unknown. In this study involving medical students, researchers found that use of the word "hypothesis" compared to the word "diagnosis" when describing a hypothetical handoff from the emergency department to the inpatient setting was associated with increased self-reported anxiety due to uncertainty.

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