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 165 Results

Impact of altering referral threshold from out-of-hours primary care to hospital on patient safety and further health service use: a cohort study.

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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.

In conversation with Ellen Deutsch, MD, MS, FACS, FAAP, FSSH, CPPS

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Perspective on Safety December 14, 2022

Ellen Deutsch, MD, MS, FACS, FAAP, FSSH, CPPS is a Medical Officer in the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Deutsch is a pediatric otolaryngologist and has vast experience in simulation and resilience engineering. We spoke with her about resilient healthcare and how resilient engineering principles are applied to improve patient safety.

Resilient Healthcare and the Safety-I and Safety-II Frameworks

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Perspective on Safety December 14, 2022

This piece discusses resilient healthcare and the Safety-I and Safety-II approaches to patient safety.

Discontinuation of outpatient medications: implications for electronic messaging to pharmacies using CancelRx.

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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.

Be Picky about your PICCs—Fragmented Care and Poor Communication at Discharge Leads to a PICC without a Plan.

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WebM&M Case September 28, 2022

This case describes a 20-year-old woman was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism and occlusive thrombus in the right brachial vein surrounding a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line (type, gauge, and length of time the PICC had been in place were not noted). The patient was discharged home but was not given any supplies for cleaning the PICC line, education regarding the signs of PICC line infection, or referral to home health services.

Patient Safety in the Ambulatory Care Setting

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Perspective on Safety August 5, 2022

The focus on patient safety in the ambulatory setting was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and appropriately shifting priorities to responding to the pandemic. This piece explores some of the core themes of patient safety in the ambulatory setting, including diagnostic safety and diagnostic errors. Ways to enhance patient safety in the ambulatory care setting and next steps in ambulatory care safety are addressed.

Multiple Failures in Test Results Follow-up for a Patient Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer at the Hampton VA Medical Center in Virginia.

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Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; June 28, 2022. Report No 21-03349-186.

Cancer test communication failures can contribute to physical, emotional, and financial patient harm. This report examines missed opportunities made by multiple clinicians involved in the care of a patient with prostate cancer who then died from metastasized disease Seven recommendations are included for improving abnormal test result communication and error management at the facility.

Analysis of readmissions in a mobile integrated health transitional care program using root cause analysis and common cause analysis.

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Buitrago I, Seidl KL, Gingold DB, et al. J Healthc Qual. 2022;44:169-177.

Reducing hospital 30-day readmissions is seen as a way to improve safety and reduce costs. Baltimore City mobile integrated health and community paramedicine (MIH-CP) was designed to improve transitional care from hospital to home. After one year in operation, MIH-CP performed a chart review to determine causes of readmission among patients in the program. Root cause analysis indicated that at least one social determinant of health (e.g., health literacy) played a role in preventable readmissions; the program was modified to improve transitional care.

Adherence to national guidelines for timeliness of test results communication to patients in the Veterans Affairs health care system.

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Meyer AND, Scott TMT, Singh H. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5:e228568.

Delayed communication of abnormal test results can contribute to diagnostic and treatment delays, patient harm, and malpractice claims. The Department of Veterans Affairs specifies abnormal test results be communicated to the patient within seven days if treatment is required, and within 14 days if no treatment is required. In the first full year of the program, 71% of abnormal test results and 80% of normal test results were communicated to the patient within the specified timeframes. Performance varied by facility and type of test.

Collaborative case review: a systems-based approach to patient safety event investigation and analysis.

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Lacson R, Khorasani R, Fiumara K, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e522-e527.

Root cause analysis is a commonly used tool to identify systems-related factors that contributed to an adverse event. This study assessed a system-based approach, (i.e., collaborative case reviews (CCR) co-led by radiology and an institutional patient safety program) to identify contributing factors and explore the strength of recommended actions in the radiology department at a large academic medical center. Stronger action items, such as standardization of processes, were implemented in 41% of events, and radiology had higher completion rates than other hospital departments.

Technology-based closed-loop tracking for improving communication and follow-up of pathology results.

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Rajan SS, Baldwin JL, Giardina TD, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e262-e266.

Radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology has been most commonly used in perioperative settings to improve patient safety. This study explored whether RFID technology can improve process measures in laboratory settings, such as order tracking, specimen processing, and test result communication. Findings indicate that RFID-tracked orders were more likely to have completed testing process milestones and were completed more quickly.

Assessment of requests for medication-related follow-up after hospital discharge, and the relation to unplanned hospital revisits, in older patients: a multicentre retrospective chart review.

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Cam H, Kempen TGH, Eriksson H, et al. BMC Geriatr. 2021;21:618.

Poor communication between hospital and primary care providers can lead to adverse events, such as hospital readmission. In this study of older adults who required medication-related follow-up with their primary care provider, the discharging provider only sent an adequate request for 60% of patients. Of those patients that did not have an adequate request, 14% had a related hospital revisit within 6 months.

Diagnostic discrepancies between antemortem clinical diagnosis and autopsy findings in pediatric cancer patients.

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Raghuram N, Alodan K, Bartels U, et al. Virchows Archiv. 2021;478:1179-1185.

Autopsies are an important tool for identifying diagnostic errors. This retrospective study of 821 pediatric cancer deaths found that 10% had a major diagnostic discrepancy between antemortem and postmortem diagnoses. These discrepancies primarily consisted of missed infections, missed cancer diagnoses, and organ complications.

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.

Facilitators and barriers of care transitions - comparing the perspectives of hospital and community healthcare staff.

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Carman E-M, Fray M, Waterson P. Appl Ergon. 2021;93:103339.

This study analyzed incident reports, discharge planning meetings, and focus groups with hospital and community healthcare staff to identify barriers and facilitators to safe transitions from hospital to community. Barriers included discharge tasks not being complete, missing or inaccurate information, and limited staff capacity. Facilitators include improved staff capacity and good communication between hospital staff, community healthcare staff, and family members. The authors recommend that hospital and community healthcare staff perspectives be taken into account when designing safe discharge policies.

Project BOOST Increases Patient Understanding of Treatment and Follow-up Care

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Patient Safety Innovation May 26, 2021

The Patient Safe-D(ischarge) program used standardized tools to educate patients about their discharge needs, test understanding of those needs, and improve medication reconciliation at admission and discharge. A quasi-randomized controlled trial of the program found that it significantly increased patients' understanding and knowledge of their diagnoses, treatment, and required follow-up care.

Why test results are still getting "lost" to follow-up: a qualitative study of implementation gaps.

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Zimolzak AJ, Shahid U, Giardina TD, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2022;37:137-144.

Inadequate follow-up of diagnostic testing can lead to missed or delayed diagnoses. Based on interviews with healthcare workers at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities across the United States, this qualitative study identified factors contributing to lack of timely follow-up of abnormal test results. The most commonly cited factors included trainee/resident involvement, absence of a process to address incidental findings on imaging, lack of standardized electronic health records (EHR) and related tracking systems, and lack of updated patient and provider contact information. The authors summarize participant recommendations to reduce missed test results.

Nursing and Patient Safety

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Patient Safety Primer April 21, 2021

Nurses play a critical role in patient safety through their constant presence at the patient's bedside. However, staffing issues and suboptimal working conditions can impede a nurse’s ability to detect and prevent adverse events.

Reaching the summit of discharge summaries: a quality improvement project.

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Richmond RT, McFadzean IJ, Vallabhaneni P. BMJ Open Qual. 2021;10:e001142.

Timely completion of discharge summaries can improve handoffs with outpatient physicians and ensure communication of potential patient safety problems. This quality improvement project used an established change model to improve the rate of discharge summary completed within 24 hours from less than 10%, to 84% within 2 months.

What does safety in mental healthcare transitions mean for service users and other stakeholder groups: an open-ended questionnaire study.

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Tyler N, Wright N, Panagioti M, et al. Health Expect. 2021;24:185-194.

Transitions of care represent a vulnerable time for patients. This survey found that safety in mental healthcare transitions (hospital to community) is perceived differently by patients, families, and healthcare professionals. While clinical indicators (e.g., suicide, self-harm, and risk of adverse drug events) are important, patients and families also highlighted the social elements of transitional safety (e.g., loneliness, emotional readiness for change).

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