The hectic pace of emergency care detracts from reliability. This review examined the literature on evidence, practice, and patient perspectives regarding diagnostic error in the emergency room. A WebM&M commentary discussed an incident involving a diagnostic delay in the emergency department.

This study aimed to validate a behavioral marker as a measure of teamwork, specifically in the intensive care unit setting. Researchers found that it was difficult to establish interrater reliability for teamwork when observing behaviors and conclude that assessment of teamwork remains complex in the context of patient safety research.

SBAR has been widely implemented to improve communication in health care settings. This simulation study compared the use of SBAR with a newly developed Traffic Lights tool to assess the communication between anesthesia teams in different operating rooms in 12 validated clinical scenarios. The authors found that the new tool yielded more accurate information transfer, took less time to use, and was preferred by the majority of study participants.

The I-PASS signout tool has become a widely used method of patient handoffs when transferring care from the primary clinician to a covering clinician. This study used the I-PASS framework to develop and implement a standardized signout process for transferring patients from the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit to the general ward. The new process significantly improved clinician workflow and perceived safety culture relating to handoffs.

This pre-post study demonstrated increases in teamwork after introduction of an anesthesia checklist. Although evidence for checklists in real-world settings is mixed, this work demonstrates their efficacy as part of an intervention study, which is consistent with prior work.

Improving teamwork and communication is a continued focus in the hospital setting. This systematic review revealed that although studies of teamwork in the intensive care unit abound, the field lacks common definitions and constructs. Teamwork usually entailed joint strategy and shared goals, and quality improvement approaches to enhance teamwork typically involve team training and development of structured protocols. Many interventions target rounds, during which interdisciplinary providers discuss each patient, or handoffs between clinicians. The authors suggest that communication is the most prominent aspect of teamwork and propose further study in conceptualizing teamwork to design effective interventions. The heterogeneity in defining and measuring teamwork may account for mixed results in improving safety outcomes. An AHRQ WebM&M perspective describes the Veterans Health Administration's medical team training program.

This commentary discusses concerns associated with patient transfers from the operating room to the intensive care unit and describes strategies to improve such handoffs, including standardizing processes and offering training to enhance teamwork and communication.

This study examines the nature of trauma teamwork errors and suggests structures to better support team cognition and decision-making.

Silence and poor communication are known threats to patient safety. Despite efforts to promote teamwork and develop shared tools for communication, there are persistent gaps between nurse and physician practices. This study surveyed nurses and physicians working in labor and delivery units and discovered significant differences in their perceptions of patient harm associated with various clinical scenarios. These differences in patient harm ratings were the greatest predictor of speaking up, suggesting that differences in clinical assessment may serve as a useful target for intervention. The authors discuss the negative impact of environments where mental models are not shared, conflict is poorly managed, and disruptive behaviors stifle open communication. A past AHRQ WebM&M commentary discussed a case of "silence" when members of the operating room team were reluctant to speak up to a senior surgeon.

This study reports on the development of a standardized tool to assess the quality of handoffs. The tool was used to evaluate handoffs in the emergency department, operating room, and general hospital wards.

In this survey conducted in 50 nursing units, the frequency of missed nursing care was at least partly attributable to poor teamwork between nurses.

This review found that handoff errors are common between ambulance personnel and the emergency department, and there is a need for standardization of handoff responsibilities and development of structured handoff protocols.

This commentary describes how bedside shift report can augment teamwork, communication, and patient safety in the emergency department setting.