Electronic health record (EHR) system issues degrade the data sharing and communication needed to inform safe patient care. This newspaper feature discusses problems with the new Veterans Affairs EHR system from the patient and family perspective in the context of diagnostic and treatment delay.

Patients with rare diseases present diagnostic challenges. This article introduces the potential for improvements in diagnosis that telemedicine brings to the process through enabling access to appropriate expertise previously limited by geography. 

Patients with cancer and other chronic disorder treatment needs have been negatively affected by the restructuring of services to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. This story discusses company strategies to prepare to virtually support patients with a range of conditions. The author shares communication and support tactics to keep patients safe until they can get their appointments.

The operating room environment harbors particular patient safety hazards. Drawing from 1137 perioperative medication error reports submitted over a 1-year period, this analysis found that more than half of the recorded incidents reached the patient and the majority of those stemmed from communication breakdowns during transitions or handoffs. The authors provide recommendations to reduce risks of error, including using barcode medication administration, standardizing handoff procedures, and stocking prefilled syringes.

Medication errors continue to be a worldwide patient safety challenge that requires both systems and individual practice strategies for improvement. This magazine article describes how pharmacists can address failures associated with processing, dosing, care transitions, and information sharing to prevent medication errors.

Although health information technology presents opportunities to improve patient safety, it can also introduce risks. This commentary discusses how insufficient interoperability, data integrity, training, and protection against copy-and-paste errors can hinder optimal use of electronic health record systems.

As they become more prevalent, electronic medical records (EMRs) are being used to improve safety in increasingly creative ways. This newspaper article reports on efforts to engage patients in reviewing their medication lists by providing them with access to EMR systems in order to detect and correct discrepancies in data.

This magazine article describes problems with medical devices and recommends that device connectivity and integration can improve safety.

This article describes an AHRQ-funded project to discern whether a standardized, computerized tool can improve handoff communication.