High-risk opioid prescribing by providers contributes to opioid misuse. This systematic review sought to identify factors that confer risk for opioid addiction and thereby suggest which patients can safely take opioids. Researchers found that a prior history of substance use disorder, prescription of psychiatric medications, certain mental health diagnoses, higher daily opioid doses, and prescription of opioids for 30 days or more may confer risk for opioid addiction. The only factor associated with a lower risk of opioid use disorder was absence of a mood disorder. They could not identify any screening instruments or tools that accurately risk-stratified individuals' likelihood of opioid addiction. An Annual Perspective discussed problematic prescribing practices that likely contribute to adverse events and described promising practices to foster safer opioid use.

The degree to which sepsis contributes to inpatient mortality and the extent to which sepsis-associated inpatient mortality is preventable remains unknown. In this retrospective cohort study, researchers analyzed the medical records of 568 adult patients hospitalized at 6 United States hospitals who either died during the hospitalization or were discharged to hospice. They found a diagnosis of sepsis was present in 300 cases and that it was the main cause of death in 198 cases. Reviewers rated 11 of the 300 sepsis-associated deaths as definitely or moderately likely preventable. The authors conclude that it may be challenging to further reduce sepsis-associated inpatient mortality.

The opioid epidemic continues to be a pressing patient safety challenge in the United States. Many efforts have been implemented to curb opioid prescribing, such as policy initiatives and targeted feedback to individual clinicians. A major initiative was the release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for prescribing opioids for patients with chronic pain. These guidelines (which do not apply to patients with cancer or patients receiving palliative care) called for initially using nonopioid medications and nonpharmacologic approaches to chronic pain before using opioids, prescribing immediate-release instead of long-acting medications, and avoiding use of other sedating medications. This study examined trends in opioid prescribing rates before and after the CDC guidelines were released. Investigators found that opioid prescribing overall has decreased between 2012 and 2017, but the rate of decline increased after dissemination of the CDC guidelines. Perhaps the most notable finding is that the number of high-dose opioid prescriptions declined by nearly 50% over the study period (from 683 to 356 prescriptions per 100,000 adults). An Annual Perspective discussed the causes and potential solutions to opioid overprescribing.

Opioid use can increase risk of adverse drug events, including overdoses. Researchers utilized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to examine opioid-related deaths in the United States from 2001 to 2016. During this period, opioid-related deaths increased by nearly 350%. Overdose deaths occurred more among men than women and were most prevalent in patients aged 15 to 34 years. These findings raise concern regarding the increasing proportion of deaths associated with opioid use. The authors call for targeted prevention and harm reduction efforts among young adults to address the growing opioid-related harm in this group. A PSNet perspective discussed opioid overdose as a patient safety problem.

Nationally, opioid overdose remains a common cause of preventable death. Treatment of opioid use disorder with opioid replacement therapy, specifically methadone or buprenorphine, is a potent but underutilized strategy for reducing opioid-related harm. Investigators employed a prospective cohort study to follow 17,568 adults who were treated in Massachusetts emergency departments for a nonfatal opioid overdose. About 15% received opioid replacement therapy in the subsequent 2 years. Patients on opioid replacement therapy were substantially less likely to die from opioids or any other cause. An accompanying editorial from leaders at the National Institute on Drug Abuse highlights strategies to increase the number of Americans offered these life-saving therapies. The editorial also notes the alarming number of patients who received prescriptions for short-acting opioids and benzodiazepines after an opioid overdose. A past Annual Perspective and PSNet perspective delineated other strategies for addressing the opioid crisis.

Opioids are known to be high-risk medications. This secondary data analysis of more than 100,000 patients undergoing in-hospital surgical procedures at 21 hospitals found that about 10% experienced an opioid-related adverse drug event during their admission. Patients receiving higher dose and longer duration of opioids were more likely to experience adverse events. Patients who experienced an opioid-related adverse drug event had longer hospital stays, greater inpatient mortality risk, and a higher rate of readmissions compared to those who did not experience problems with opioid medications. The authors call for reducing opioid use in acute care, postoperative settings in order to improve patient safety. A previous WebM&M commentary emphasized the importance of stratifying risk for patients initiated or maintained on chronic opioid therapy to prevent misuse.

This observation study found that patients who met criteria for dementia using objective assessments often lacked a formal dementia diagnosis, even when they regularly received medical care. Many patients who were diagnosed with dementia were not aware of their diagnosis. These results indicate the need to improve both diagnosis of dementia and communication regarding dementia diagnosis.

Patient safety measurement remains challenging. This article describes a framework to address gaps in measuring diagnostic error. The authors propose utilizing big data to develop diagnostic performance dashboards and benchmarking tools that support proactive learning and improvement strategies.

As deaths and overdoses related to opioid use have increased, physician prescribing behavior is under greater scrutiny. Prior research has shown significant variation in opioid prescribing among emergency medicine physicians, but the degree to which emergency department prescribing contributes to overall opioid prescribing remains unknown. This retrospective study used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 1996 to 2012 and found that the quantity of opioids prescribed increased by 471% during the study period. While the percentage of opioids prescribed in the ambulatory setting increased from 71% in 1996 to 83% in 2012, the percentage of opioids prescribed in the emergency department decreased from 7.4% in 1996 to 4.4% in 2012. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that interventions designed to reduce opioid prescribing should target the outpatient setting rather than the emergency department. A past PSNet perspective discussed opioid medications and associated patient safety risks.

Research is increasingly focusing on diagnostic errors and strategies to reduce them. The challenges of measuring diagnostic difficulties has hindered progress. This commentary outlines a conceptual approach to identifying "undesirable diagnostic events." The authors propose developing a list of clinical contexts and specific diseases prone to diagnostic error. Candidate conditions should be diagnosable in routine practice with a clear reference standard and defined diagnostic process. They also contend that measures should be constructed for relatively common conditions that are often misdiagnosed and for which delayed diagnosis could lead to harm, such as delayed cancer diagnosis. The authors propose designing and testing diagnosis measures based on this framework. A previous PSNet perspective by the senior author, Hardeep Singh, discussed momentum in the field of diagnostic error over the past several years.

Harm from opioids is a widely recognized patient safety concern. In this retrospective cohort study, investigators examined the effect of postoperative opioid prescribing in patients who had never received opioids before. As with prior studies, they found increased subsequent misuse of opioids among patients who received larger quantities of opioid medications following surgery compared to those who received fewer opioid medications. Longer duration of postoperative opioid prescription was also associated with higher odds of future diagnosis of opioid misuse. This study adds to evidence demonstrating the potential harms associated with even short-term opioid prescription. A recent PSNet interview discussed the opioid epidemic and strategies to address this growing patient safety concern.

Opioid misuse is an urgent patient safety issue. Research has found that a significant proportion of adults prescribed opioids in the short term remain on opioid medications chronically, but less is known about postsurgical opioid use among pediatric patients. This study analyzed a large, commercial health care claims database to determine whether children and adolescents prescribed opioids following surgery were more likely to be prescribed opioids 3 to 6 months later, compared to children who did not undergo surgery. Researchers found that postoperative opioid use was associated with persistent opioid use. A related editorial raises questions about the breadth of procedures included and calls for development and implementation of evidence-based pediatric pain management strategies that address the risk for persistent opioid use and misuse.

Overlapping surgery is the practice of surgeons scheduling distinct procedures on different patients concurrently. This practice has raised safety concerns. This large population-based retrospective study examined outcomes for nonoverlapping versus overlapping hip surgeries across Ontario, Canada. After adjustment for factors known to predict surgical outcomes, such as hospital and surgeon case volume and the patient's overall health, researchers found an association between increasing duration of surgical overlap and higher risk of complications. These results contrast with a recent single-center study that found no safety differences between overlapping and nonoverlapping neurosurgeries. An accompanying editorial acknowledges the mixed results of safety studies for overlapping surgeries and calls for large, multicenter, prospective studies across a range of surgical procedures with long-term follow-up.

Opioid-related mortality is a patient safety concern. Prior studies have demonstrated that postdischarge opioid prescribing can lead to chronic use in opioid-naïve patients. This retrospective observational study examined the amount and duration of opioid prescribing following 25 common elective surgical procedures. Nearly all patients were prescribed opioids after elective surgery. The median amount of opioids prescribed, 375 oral morphine equivalents, was nearly twice the maximum recommended. Quantity of opioids prescribed differed by sex, body weight, age, and diagnosis, and there were also significant variations among the three institutions included in the study. The authors call for standardizing and optimizing postsurgical opioid prescribing.

Opioid safety is currently the nation's most pressing public health issue, with death rates from opioid prescriptions approaching epidemic levels. In this study, the investigators used data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to estimate rates of opioid use and misuse in the United States population. More than one-third of adults reported using prescription opioids in the past year and nearly 5% reported misusing opioids (defined as any use not directed by a physician, including use without a prescription and use at a higher dose or for longer than prescribed). The majority of patients who misused opioids did so without a prescription, with many patients obtaining opioids from friends or relatives. Among those who misused opioids, most did so seeking relief from pain—indicating that untreated pain is common in the population and raising concern that simply reducing opioid prescribing without providing alternative pain treatment modalities could be harmful to patients. A recent PSNet perspective discussed the patient safety aspects of the opioid epidemic.

The epidemic of deaths associated with opioid medications has spurred research examining clinicians' prescribing patterns. Recent studies have shown that opioids are frequently prescribed in situations where there is little evidence of their benefit—such as after dental procedures—and that there is considerable variation in prescribing rates between providers. However, the true incidence of inappropriate opioid prescribing has not yet been defined. This retrospective study of patients who had sustained traumatic injuries examined the relationship between injury severity and opioid prescribing. Investigators found that patients with more severe injuries were more likely to be prescribed opioids, indicating that opioid prescribing in this context was likely appropriate in most cases. The study and accompanying editorial emphasize the importance of targeted efforts to reduce inappropriate opioid prescribing, focusing primarily on reducing opioid use for chronic noncancer pain (where there is no evidence opioids are beneficial) while not denying opioids to those in acute pain from trauma or other reasons.

Opioid medication use represents a significant safety problem in the United States. Overprescribing by providers is one factor contributing to the widespread use of opioids. Reducing inappropriate prescribing may help improve patient safety. Using claims data for 36,177 patients, investigators sought to better characterize new and persistent opioid use after surgery, defined as filling an opioid prescription between 90 and 180 days postoperatively. Although there was no major difference in persistent opioid use between those who underwent minor surgical procedures and those who underwent major surgical procedures, results demonstrated that opioid use persisted in greater frequency after surgery among patients with behavioral, pain, and substance use disorders. A recent PSNet perspective discussed patient safety with regard to opioid medications.

Opioid use has become a growing patient safety concern. Recent studies have documented wide variation in opioid prescribing for acute pain and a significant rate of chronic opioid use after patients receive a first prescription for an acute indication. This retrospective medical record review study identified risk factors for remaining on an opioid medication for more than 1 year following their initial prescription. Older, female, and publicly or self-insured patients were more likely to remain on an opioid compared with younger, male, and privately insured patients. Patients started on higher doses (cumulative dose ≥ 700 mg morphine equivalent), provided prescriptions with longer duration (more than 10 days), or given 3 or more prescriptions for opioids were most likely to continue to use opioid medications 1 year later. The authors recommend prescribing fewer than 7 days of opioids for acute pain and adhering to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline for opioid use to improve prescribing practices.

Most patient safety problems can be ascribed to underlying systems failures, but issues with individual clinicians play a role as well. Prior studies have shown that a small proportion of physicians account for a disproportionate share of patient complaints and malpractice lawsuits. This retrospective cohort study used data from the Patient Advocacy Reporting System (which collects unsolicited patient concerns) and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program to examine the association between patient complaints and surgical adverse events. The investigators found that patients of surgeons who had received unsolicited patient concerns via the reporting system were at increased risk of postoperative complications and hospital readmission after surgery. Although the absolute increase in complication rates was relatively small across all surgeons, surgeons in the highest quartile of unsolicited observations had an approximately 14% higher risk of complications compared to surgeons in the lowest quartile. This study extends upon prior research by demonstrating an association between patient concerns about individual clinicians and clinical adverse events, and it strengthens the argument for using data on patient concerns to identify and address problem clinicians before patients are harmed.