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 239 Results

Doctors wrestle with A.I. in patient care, citing lax oversight.

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Jewett C. New York Times. October 30, 2023

US Food and Drug Administration regulation and review is noted as having gaps in process that can affect patient safety. This article discusses reasons for the reluctance of physicians to fully embrace the use of artificial intelligence tools approved by the FDA in their practice. The concerns include lax regulation, poor product development transparency and lack of robust real-world accuracy data.

Temporarily holding medication orders safely in order to prevent patient harm.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. October 19, 2023;28(21):1-4.

Process disconnects can cause administration mistakes that lead to harm. This article discusses reasons for holding medications and how workflow issues can contribute to medication temporary stop order problems. Recommendations for improvement include examining electronic health record alerts, assigning one prescriber to oversee medication reconciliation, and instituting a policy on hold orders.

RFID tags reduce restocking errors of anesthesia medications.

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Banks MA. Specialty Pharmacy Continuum. September 15, 2023.

Radiofrequency identification (RFID) devices are being used to improve processes in the operating room and prevent errors. This article examines the use of RFID tracking to build reliability into operating room anesthesia medication refiling process. The experience at one hospital found that the RFID process reduced errors, while increasing the task completion time.

Sentinel Event Alert 67: Preserving Patient Safety After a Cyberattack.

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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49:724-729.

Cyberattacks and technology disruptions are increasing as a threat to patient safety. This alert identifies risks linked to cyberattacks. The authors discuss how organizations might be proactive in order to prevent the potential for data breaches and reduce their impact on care delivery and processes should cyberattacks occur.

Mitigating bias in AI at the point of care.

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Decamp M, Lindvall C. Science. 2023;381(6654):150-152.

Computerized clinical support is vulnerable to bias due to widespread health care inequalities that feed into the systems. This article discusses the need for collective effort to increase equitable application of artificial intelligence through a recognition of latent factors at the clinician, patient, and policy levels that contribute to algorithmic biases.

A hard look at hard stops and workarounds in the acute care setting.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. June 29, 2023;28(13);1-4.

Hard stops in the electronic medical record prevent continuation of ordering, dispensing, or administering an unsafe medication to a patient. This article presents system-level recommendations to effectively introduce hard stops such as including physicians and pharmacists in decision making to reduce risk of workarounds in the future.

AI in medicine needs to be carefully deployed to counter bias – and not entrench it.

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Levi R, Gorenstein D. Health Shots. National Public Radio. June 6, 2023.

Systemic biases are present in data tools, training and culture across health care. This article discusses weaknesses in artificial intelligence algorithms that are poised to further entrench biases and inequities into health care systems. The authors highlight the role of regulators and industry in combating the presence of biases in decision making technologies.

Taking a closer look at medication errors that involve oxytocin.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. June 1, 2023; 28(11):1-6.

Oxytocin, which is commonly used to induce labor, has been associated with adverse events. Based on 2,073 oxytocin-related medication errors reported to one patient safety organization, the authors of this article summarize the common event types (e.g., pump misprogramming, incorrect infusion set-up, or use of incorrect drug or concentration) and highlight several recommendations to increase safe oxytocin administration.

AI may be on its way to your doctor’s office, but it’s not ready to see patients.

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Tahir D. KFF Health News. May 12, 2023.

Real-time use of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care settings continues to cause concern despite its potential to improve care. This article examines current efforts to develop AI applications for health care and the reasons for oversight to protect privacy, reduce bias, and prevent misinformation.

VA pauses $16B Oracle Cerner EHR deployments indefinitely to address error-ridden early rollout.

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Muoio D. Fierce Healthcare. April 21, 2023.

Notable problems have occurred during the testing of the new electronic health records (EHR) system being designed for use in Veterans Affairs hospitals. This news article discusses the temporary halt of the project as the Department reassesses issues that have arisen during test rollouts in several United States hospitals.

Senators threaten consequences after VA confirms 4 deaths tied to computer system tested in Spokane.

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Donovan-Smith O. Spokesman Review. March 15, 2023.

Implementations of electronic health record (EHR) systems are complex efforts that have the potential for injury, should failure occur. This article discusses the Veterans Affairs EHR implementation project that is associated with six incidents of patient harm and calls for improvement at the federal level.

Why hospitals still make serious medical errors—and how they are trying to reduce them.

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Landro L. Wall Street Journal. March 12, 2023.

Patient harm from health care is persistent despite decades of effort to address problems that degrade care. This article discusses the potential that improved technology use has in reducing medication errors, falls, surgical errors, and high-risk hospital-acquired infections.

Hospital ‘black boxes’ put surgical practices under the microscope.

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Sadick B. Wall Street Journal. March 19, 2023.

Safety information systems that track action in real time can reveal a trove of data about how teams and procedures progress. This news article describes the use of a black-box system in the operating room. Its use by hospitals in the United States is described to illustrate the value of black box data to inform learning and improvement strategies.

Artificial intelligence, patient safety, and achieving the quintuple aim in anesthesiology.

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Tan JM, Cannesson MP. APSF Newsletter. 2023;38(2):1,3–4,7.

Technological advancement is a hallmark of anesthesiology safety improvement. This article discusses the opportunities that artificial intelligence (AI) represents for anesthesiologists and provides a practical framework for understanding the important relationship to be optimized between AI and perioperative care to support patient safety.

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Special Statement: telemedicine in obstetrics-quality and safety considerations.

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Healy A, Davidson C, Allbert J, et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2023;228:b8-b17.

The demand for, and acceptance of, telemedicine solutions to provide services has grown substantially in recent years as safety profiles for the services are being defined. This guideline examines its use in pregnancy-related care, discusses the benefits and suggests actions to ensure patient safety during these encounters such as development of appropriate metrics and methods for vital-sign monitoring.

Medication errors: the year in review: January through December 2021.

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Pharmacy Practice News Special Edition. December 13, 2022: 43-54.

Medication errors continue to occur despite long-standing efforts to reduce them. This article summarizes types of errors submitted to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices reporting program in 2021. The piece discusses the medications involved, recommendations for improvement, and technologies to be employed to minimize error occurrence.

Safety considerations for challenges when using smart infusion pumps.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. October 20, 2022;20(21):1-5.

Errors due to inadequate information use with intravenous smart pumps are a safety concern. This article discusses factors that contribute to medication errors and smart pumps, which include out-of-date drug libraries, omitted dose limits, and variable rate infusions. Recommendations for improvement include the creation, testing, and updating of drug libraries.

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Diagnostic Safety

October 10, 2022

Selected PSNet materials for a general safety audience focusing on improvements in the diagnostic process and the strategies that support them to prevent diagnostic errors from harming patients.

Embedded bias: how medical records sow discrimination.

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Tahir D. Kaiser Health News. September 26, 2022.

Negative patient representations in medical records perpetuate stereotypes that can affect care over time. This story discusses how written notes using stigmatizing language reflect bias and physician disrespect that serve as clues to misdiagnosis. Black patients and those patients named as "difficult" were particularly vulnerable to damaging representation in notes.

When medical error becomes personal, activism becomes painful.

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Millenson M. Forbes. September 16, 2022.

Unnecessary medication infusions indicate weaknesses in medication service processes. While no harm was noted in the case discussed, the actions by the patient’s family to initiate an examination of the incident were rebuffed, patient disrespect was demonstrated, a near miss incident report was absent, and data omissions took place. The piece discusses how these detractors from safety were all present at the hospital involved.

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