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Maternal safety in the United States is gaining momentum as a system-level patient safety concern. This report reviews the new Joint Commission Provision of Care, Treatment, and Services (PC) standards developed to improve the reliability of maternal care. Actions for improvement include patient risk assessment for conditions at admission and role-specific education for staff and providers who treat maternal patients regarding hemorrhage processes and procedures.

This commentary describes how one health system worked to combat resistance to change associated with implementation of a checklist initiative. The success of the program was built on empowering team members to drive the process, clinician motivation to provide safe care, and engaging leadership. A PSNet interview with Lucian Leape discussed surgical safety checklists.

This news article describes how a 19-hospital health system successfully applied high reliability principles to emphasize a zero-tolerance focus on patient harm. The coordinated effort across the system achieved a drop in readmissions and physician burnout. Tactics used to improve reliability include huddles, purposeful redundancy, and leadership engagement.

Aviation continues to provide inspiration for patient safety innovation. This commentary describes a 10-minute team huddle exercise which involves team members rating their own mood status and the leader asking if there are any contextual concerns. In addition, two team members select "knowledge cards" that either test the person's knowledge or assign the person to proactively watch for improvement opportunities during the shift. The results encouraged sharing, situational awareness, and team building.

Reporting on the importance of a supportive workplace environment that engages employees in tasks to help ensure safety, this news article discusses root causes for low staff morale in the laboratory environment and suggests tactics to build healthy staff relationships.

This newspaper article reports on a case of wrong-site surgery and explores initiatives to prevent such errors, including the Universal Protocol and Partnership for Patients program.

This article describes a regional collaborative to enhance care transitions of Medicare beneficiaries by improving communication, teamwork, and medication reconciliation.

This article explores the challenges to improving patient safety and discusses strategies for reducing medical errors.

This article describes a wrong-site surgery prevention program and how it was successfully implemented in 30 hospitals.

This news piece describes adjustments made in medical training to enable safe, team-oriented practice during residency.

This feature article explains how cognitive errors contribute to medical mistakes and describes ways to lessen their occurrence.

This white paper presents three principles that physicians can leverage to support highly reliable, safe care: do no harm, evidence-based practice, and patient-centered teamwork.

This article discusses strategies to ensure safe transitions for patients between hospital departments. These strategies include transport team development, use of standardized communication tools, and educational programming for unlicensed health care personnel.

This newspaper article discusses increasing concerns over potential burn injuries in the hospital setting and reports on efforts to raise awareness of the dangers and promote preventative measures.