Caregivers and family members offer a unique perspective on patient safety. In this study, patient and caregiver stakeholders outlined the safety threats affecting patients discharged from mental health services and the well-being of caregivers as well as potential solutions. Participants highlighted approaches to improve caregiver involvement, patient and caregiver wellness and education, and the policy and system environments.

Daily huddles can improve team communication and awareness of safety incidents. This single-site study found that implementation of daily interdisciplinary huddles increased reporting of near-miss events and improved team satisfaction and perceived team communication, collaboration, and psychological safety.

Prior research has found that patients who die by suicide often had recent contact with the healthcare setting. Based on a multi-year chart review at one institution, the authors concluded that suicide risk assessment and documentation in the heath record to be insufficient. The authors outline quality improvement recommendations focused on improving documentation, suicide assessment and intervention training, and improving communications with families, caregivers, and other health care providers.

Transitions of care represent a vulnerable time for patients. This survey found that safety in mental healthcare transitions (hospital to community) is perceived differently by patients, families, and healthcare professionals. While clinical indicators (e.g., suicide, self-harm, and risk of adverse drug events) are important, patients and families also highlighted the social elements of transitional safety (e.g., loneliness, emotional readiness for change).

This study used qualitative methods to understand the experiences of former psychiatric patients that nursing staff considered challenging and that resulted in behavior management interventions (e.g., aggression, self-harm, inappropriate sexual behavior). Interviewed patients cited various reasons for these challenging behaviors, including communication difficulties related to their psychiatric symptoms, stressful feelings such as frustration and fear, coercive nursing culture and restrictive nursing practices. Strategies for managing these behaviors are discussed, as well as core competencies for delivering care based on patients’ needs.

This review discusses the importance of teamwork in supporting safety, psychological states driving effective safety performance, organizational- and team-level characteristics impacting safety performance, and the role of teams in safety management.

This systematic review synthesized evidence from 37 studies to examine the association between malpractice liability risk and healthcare quality and safety. The review found no evidence of association between liability risk and avoidable hospitalizations or readmissions, and limited evidence supporting an association between risk and mortality (5/20 studies) or patient safety indicators or postoperative complications (2/6 studies).

This exploratory systematic review aimed to describe the state of the research on patient safety in inpatient mental health settings. Authors included 364 papers, representing 31 countries and data from over 150,000 participants. The existing research base was categorized into ten broad safety categories – interpersonal violence, coercive interventions, safety culture, harm to self, safety of the physical environment, medication safety, unauthorized leave, clinical decision making, falls, and infection prevention/control; papers were of varying quality with the majority of papers assessed as “fair”. The authors note that several areas of patient safety in inpatient mental health are particularly understudied, such as suicide, as the review only yielded one study meeting inclusion criteria.

Establishing a culture of safety within health care organizations requires strong leadership support. This cross-sectional survey study of nurses, allied health professionals, and unit clerks working in the inpatient setting at a single hospital found that positive perceptions of senior leadership support for safety and positive perceptions of teamwork were associated with positive perceptions of patient safety. In addition, when staff perceived senior leadership support for safety to be lacking, the positive impact of direct managerial leadership on staff perceptions of patient safety was more pronounced.

Despite concerns regarding the safety and quality of care for hospitalized psychiatric patients, research exploring this area of patient safety is lacking. This commentary suggests several policy-focused strategies to improve the safety and patient-centeredness of inpatient psychiatric care, including payment reforms, incentive alignment, and increased funding for research.

Medication errors are common in mental health care. This survey of nurses and nursing students identified interruptions and insufficient medication knowledge as major barriers to ensuring medication safety in outpatient mental health.

The TeamSTEPPS teamwork training program was successfully implemented at a psychiatric hospital, with resulting improvement in staff perceptions of teamwork.