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Chicago, IL: Harpo Productions, Smithsonian Channel: May 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the impact of racial disparities and inequities on patient safety for patients of color. This film shares stories of families whose care was unsafe. The cases discussed highlight how missed and dismissed COVID symptoms and inattention to patient and family concerns due to bias reduces patient safety.

Lessons Learned? Building a Culture of Patient Safety Within the Veterans Health Administration.

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US House of Representatives Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health. 117th Cong. 1^st Sess (2021).

The Veterans Health Administration is a large complex system that faces various challenges to safe care provision. At this hearing, government administrators testified on current gaps that detract from safe care in the Veteran’s health system. The experts discussed several high-profile misconduct and systemic failure incidents, suggested that the culture and leadership within the system overall enables latency of issues, and outlined actions being taken to address weaknesses.

Ripped apart: medical misdiagnosis and malpractice.

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Kast S, Gerr M, Black D, et al. “On the Record.” WYPR. August 3, 2021

Misdiagnosis is a persistent challenge for patients and families to navigate. This audio news segment highlights one family's experience with poor care stemming from disrespect and premature closure that resulted in missed diagnosis, unnecessary care, and patient death. The story is coupled with a broader discussion on the extent of diagnostic errors and reasons they occur.

Recognizing Unsafe Care: What It Is and How to Report It.

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Patient Safety Foundation. August 26, 2021.

This webinar introduced medical error and harm as related concepts to identify unsafe care and enhance response, engagement, and reporting efforts of clinicians, patients and families.

Unite for Safe Care.

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Patient Safety Movement. September 17, 2021.

Patient safety is a global challenge for the health care community. This webinar coincided with World Patient Safety Day and presented two tracks for both the profession and the public that highlighted issues impacting maternal care safety and high reliability. Those who have lost their lives to medical error were also honored during the event. The session speakers included Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, Jeff Brady, MD, and Albert Wu, MD.

Bearing the Burden: Black Mothers in America.

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Weiser S. The New Yorker and Retro Report; 2021.

Disparities in maternal care have become apparent as a public health concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. This short film spotlights inequities and biases that Black mothers face, that reduce the safety of their care. Midwives are offered as a strategy for improving the safety of maternal care in this patient population.

Think health care workers are tested often for the Coronavirus? Think again.

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Wamsley L. National Public Radio and WBUR. December 7, 2020.

Testing for COVID-19 is a core public safety strategy for pandemic management. This news story discusses how a lack of health care workers’ virus status knowledge could contribute to spread. Barriers inherent to a universal testing strategy include operational challenges, patient testing volume, and availability of health care workers to provide care during the pandemic should clinicians test positive.

Doctors' unconscious bias affects quality of health care services, research shows.

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Dembosky A. All Things Considered. National Public Radio. October 15, 2020.

Physician implicit bias is gaining attention as a patient safety concern. This piece shares a story of ineffective care delivery to a patient with COVID-19 as context for the discussion. Hospital tactics to address the problem such as training and use of patient survey data to motivate individual action are reviewed.

Some health workers suffering from addiction steal drugs meant for patients.

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Mann B. All Things Considered. National Public Radio. October 5, 2020.

Clinicians are susceptible for medication misuse due to stress, fatigue, or arrogance. This news article discusses how drug diversion should signal behaviors that can harm patients, the clinicians themselves, and the organizations they work for. Reporting gaps contribute to the perpetuation of the problem.

Keeping Nursing Home Residents and Staff Safe in the Era of COVID-19.

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National Academy of Medicine. April-June 2020.

Nursing homes are care environments that are particularly challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. This webinar series covered topics such as keeping nursing home residents and the staff that care for them safe, practice integration in skilled nursing facilities, communication and collaboration in times of crisis, testing and SARS-CoV-2 transmission prevention tactics.

How a Doctor Confronts Medical Error.

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People’s Pharmacy. Show 1209. April 28, 2020.

Accidental harm to patients is a persistent challenge in health care. This interview features Dr. Danielle Ofri who provides an overview of error in medicine. She draws from both general and COVID-19 pandemic care experiences to illustrate the difficulties involved in measuring, understanding and improving patient safety.

How the coronavirus is delaying life-altering surgeries.

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Booker C, Kargbo C. PBS News Hour. April 26, 2020.

The demands on health care organizations due to the influx of patients with COVID-19 are impacting a wide range of services and supplies. This news segment discusses schedule changes in transplants and other surgeries and the risks to patients as a result of those delays.

COVID-19 leads to increased need for dialysis machines.

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Mosley T. COVID-19 leads to increased need for dialysis machines. Here & Now. Boston Public Radio. April 27, 2020.

Comorbidities can result in unexpected care complexities. This article discusses an emerging challenge for treating patients with COVID-19 who also experience kidney failure and a lack of dialysis machines and the professionals to run them.

People with disabilities fear pandemic will worsen medical biases.

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Shaprio J. National Public Radio. April 15, 2020.

Access to care has been strained by the COVID-19 pandemic. This radio segment discusses how implicit biases can affect care of patients with disabilities. It highlights how preconceptions about this patient population could limit their access to treatments should they become ill.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Safety and Usability: See What We Mean.

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MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare.

Electronic health records (EHR) optimize information functions in care environments while paradoxically introducing inefficiencies and opportunities for error due to usability problems. This series of videos draws from usability research to illustrate how ineffective EHR design can reduce the safety and reliability of care processes that rely on these systems.

As university hospital hounds debtors, doctors say it's doing harm.

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Garcia-Navarro L. Weekend Edition Sunday. National Public Radio. December 1, 2019.

Financial harms occur in health care due to a variety of factors such as overdiagnosis and ineffective billing practices. This radio interview highlights physician concerns over a hospital policy to sue patients and families for unpaid bills. Physicians at the organization have stated the practice works against their commitment to keeping patients from harm.

Patient safety leader reflects on ‘To Err is Human’ report

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Chassin M, Foster N. Chicago, IL: American Hospital Association; November 13, 2019.

To Err is Human launched the modern patient safety movement. In this podcast, Dr. Mark Chassin reflects on changes since the report was released and the changes in health care in its wake.

What Happens When Doctors Make Diagnostic Errors?

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The Peoples Pharmacy. Show 1186: National Public Radio. October 24, 2019.

Misdiagnosis growing area of concern in health care. This radio feature explores three commonly misdiagnosed conditions to share areas of weakness and improvement opportunities. The piece recommends actions for patients and physicians to enhance diagnostic accuracy that include enhancing teamwork, data analysis and encouraging patients to ask questions.

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