Patient safety improvements must consider the complexities of care delivery to achieve lasting change. This commentary discusses recent evidence examining the effect of duty hour limit adjustments. The authors highlight challenges regarding research design on this medical education policy change and how it affects learner and patient experience. They suggest caution in applying the study conclusions. 

Reports of poor care in the media or public reporting systems can serve as an impetus to overhauling hospitals or hospital units. After several unexpected deaths and a drop in several rating systems, this cardiac surgery department launched a comprehensive quality improvement review. This paper describes the major changes made in the department, including role clarity and minimizing variation in 24/7 staffing.

This study reviewed medical malpractice claims data between 2007 and 2016 to describe the types of patient safety events involving critical care nurses. Decubitus ulcers were the most common diagnosis in claims involving ICU nurses and compared to nurses in emergency departments and operating rooms, ICU nurses were likely to have a malpractice claim alleging failure to monitor.

Inadequate nurse staffing in hospitals leads to increased morbidity and mortality. Two proposed explanations are that nurses provide surveillance and reassessment, which are particularly important for seriously ill patients, and that inadequate staffing leads to missed nursing care. This retrospective cohort study assessed the impact of a 2016 Massachusetts law that mandated minimum nursing ratios in intensive care units. Mortality and complication rates did not change after the law's passage, nor did they differ from states without staffing ratio mandates. Nurse staffing was not substantially higher in Massachusetts after the mandate when compared with other states. Two accompanying editorials highlight the challenges of measuring and promoting appropriate nursing care, which authors argue cannot be simply defined with a staffing ratio. A PSNet perspective and a WebM&M commentary further explore the safety risks of missed nursing care.

Implementing a comprehensive safety program, which included teamwork training, additional staffing and reduction of work hours, electronic medical records, and a dedicated patient safety nurse, was associated with a sharp reduction in malpractice lawsuits and sentinel events at an academic hospital.

This commentary, by leaders in the emergency medicine field, discusses the implications of the Institute of Medicine's recommendations regarding resident work hours for emergency medicine residency training. Some, but not all, of the IOM's recommendations were included in the recently released duty hour proposal from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

This article provides guidelines for ensuring quality in surgical and autopsy pathology, including identifying and correcting errors.