The PSNet Collection: All Content

The AHRQ PSNet Collection comprises an extensive selection of resources relevant to the patient safety community. These resources come in a variety of formats, including literature, research, tools, and Web sites. Resources are identified using the National Library of Medicine’s Medline database, various news and content aggregators, and the expertise of the AHRQ PSNet editorial and technical teams.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 468 Results

Work environment and operational failures associated with nurse outcomes, patient safety, and patient satisfaction.

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Riman KA, Harrison JM, Sloane DM, et al. Nurs Res. 2023;72:20-29.

Operational failures – breakdowns in care processes, such as distractions or situational constraints – can impact healthcare delivery. This cross-sectional analysis using population-based survey data from 11,709 nurses examined the relationship between operational failures, patient satisfaction, nurse-reported quality and safety, and nurse job outcomes. Findings indicate that operational failures negatively impact patient satisfaction, quality and safety, and contribute to poor nurse job outcomes, such as burnout.

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Huff NR, Liu G, Chimowitz H, et al. Int J Nurs Stud Adv. 2022;5:100111.

Negative emotions can adversely impact perception of both patient safety and personal risks. In this study, emergency nurses were surveyed about their emotions (e.g., afraid, calm), emotional suppression and reappraisal behaviors, and perceived risk of personal and patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses reported feeling both positive and negative emotions, but only negative emotions were significantly associated with greater perception of risk.

Support for healthcare workers and patients after medical error through mutual healing: another step towards patient safety.

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Aubin DL, Soprovich A, Diaz Carvallo F, et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2022;11:e002004.

Healthcare workers (HCW) and patients can experience negative psychological impacts following medical error; the negative impact can be compounded when workers and patients are prevented from processing the error. This study explored interactions between patients/families and HCWs following a medical error, highlighting barriers to communication, as well as the need for training and peer support for HCWs. Importantly, HCW and patients/families expressed feeling empathy towards the other and stressed that open communication can lead to healing for some.

A failure in the medication delivery system-how disclosure and systems investigation improve patient safety.

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Lucas SR, Pollak E, Makowski C. J Healthc Risk Manag. 2022;Epub Dec 4.

Medical errors that receive widespread media attention frequently spur health systems to reexamine their own culture and practices to prevent similar errors. This commentary describes one health system’s effort to identify and improve the system factors (systems, processes, technology) involved in the error. The action plan proposed by this project includes ensuring a just culture so staff feel empowered to report errors and near-misses; regularly review and improve medication delivery systems; build resilient medication delivery systems; and, establish methods of investigations.

New AHRQ SOPS Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set for Nursing Homes.

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Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. January 24, 2023, 1:00 – 2:00 PM (eastern).

Workplace safety became more apparent during the COVID pandemic as an essential component to support effective and safe care provision. This session will introduce the AHRQ Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set for use with the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Nursing Home Survey that examines staff perceptions of workplace safety. Background on the importance of workplace safety in nursing homes, results from a pilot test in 48 nursing homes, and one organization’s experience with the survey will be shared.

Confronting racism in pediatric care.

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Danielson B. Health Affairs. 2022;41:1681-1685.

Racism is a patient safety issue that is gaining the increased attention needed to clarify, understand, and reduce its impact. This commentary draws from a primary care pediatrician’s experience to illustrate how latent systemic racism influences decision making to affect a Black mother’s ability to care for her child with complex care needs.

Open wider: Failure to use an interpreter results in fractured teeth and hypoxia during a simple elective operation.

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WebM&M Case December 14, 2022

A 62-year-old Spanish-speaking woman presented to the pre-anesthesia area for elective removal of a left thigh lipoma. Expecting a relatively simple outpatient operation, the anesthesiologist opted not to use a Spanish language translator and performed a quick pre-anesthesia evaluation, obtaining her history from the medical record. Unknown to the anesthesiologist, the patient was trying to communicate to him that she had undergone jaw replacement surgery and that her mouth opening was therefore anatomically limited.

Health system redesign of cardiac monitoring oversight to optimize alarm management, safety, and staff engagement.

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Engel JR, Lindsay M, O'Brien S, et al. J Nurs Adm. 2022;52:511-518.

Alert fatigue occurs when healthcare workers become desensitized to alarms over time, especially when alarms tend to be clinically nonsignificant, and therefore, ignored or not responded to. This study reports on one health system’s redesign of cardiac monitoring structure to reduce alert fatigue. Through a four-phase quality improvement project, three hospitals were able to decrease alarms by 74-95% and sustained the results for 12 months.

Prevalence, causes and severity of medication administration errors in the neonatal intensive care unit: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Henry Basil J, Premakumar CM, Mhd Ali A, et al. Drug Saf. 2022;45:1457-1476.

Medication administration errors (MAEs) are thought to be common in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). This systematic review estimated that the pooled prevalence of MAEs among patients in NICU settings ranged from 59% to 65%. The review highlights both active failures (e.g., similar drug packaging or names) and latent failures (e.g., noisy environments, inaccurate verbal or written orders) contributing to MAEs.

Patient safety culture as a space of social struggle: understanding infection prevention practice and patient safety culture within hospital isolation settings - a qualitative study.

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Hunt J, Gammon J, Williams S, et al. BMC Health Serv Res. 2022;22:1446.

Isolation for infection prevention and control may result in unintended consequences for patient safety. Using focus groups at two hospitals, this study explored healthcare staff understanding of infection prevention practices and patient safety culture within insolation settings. Thematic analysis highlights the importance of engaged leadership, appropriate staffing, teamwork, and prioritization of patient-centered care in achieving a culture of safety and improvements in infection prevention.

Telehealth and Patient Safety.

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Patient Safety Primer December 14, 2022

The rapid expansion of telehealth and the variation in implementation of new models of care into medical practice has resulted in emerging concerns regarding patient safety. This primer summarizes these concerns – including diagnostic errors, medication errors, and health equity considerations – as well as telehealth implementation strategies to enhance patient safety.

Prevent administration of ear drops into the eyes.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert!: Acute Care Edition. December 1, 2022;27(24):1-3.

Look-alike medications are vulnerable to wrong route and other use errors. This article examines the potential for mistaken application of ear drops into eyes. Strategies highlighted to reduce this error focus on storage, dispensing, administration, and patient education.

Guidelines in Practice: prevention of unintentionally retained surgical items.

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Cochran K. AORN J. 2022;116:427-440.

AORN revised its Guideline for prevention of unintentionally retained surgical items in late 2021. This article focuses on concepts and recommendations specific to counting procedures, reconciling discrepancies, technology, and education.

How does workplace violence-reporting culture affect Workplace violence, nurse burnout, and patient safety?

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Kim S, Lynn MR, Baernholdt MB, et al. J Nurs Care Qual. 2022;38:11-18.

In response to concerns about workplace violence (WPV) directed at healthcare workers in the US, the Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert and recommendations to increase organizational awareness of this risk. This study evaluated the effect of one of those recommendations, a WPV-reporting culture, on nurses’ burnout and patient safety. As anticipated, WPV increased nurse burnout, but unexpectedly, a strong WPV-reporting culture also increased the negative effect of WPV on burnout.

Preventing errors when preparing and administering medications via enteral feeding tubes.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. November 17, 2022;27(23).

Enteral feeding tube medication delivery presents safety challenges that can cause harm. This article highlights problems with feed tube medication administration. It shares improvement recommendations that include best practice adherence, standardization, monitoring, and patient engagement.

Conceptual and practical challenges associated with understanding patient safety within community-based mental health services.

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Averill P, Vincent CA, Reen G, et al. Health Expect. 2023;26:51-63.

Patient safety research on inpatient psychiatric care is expanding, but less is known about outpatient mental health patient safety. This review of safety in community-based mental health services revealed several challenges, including defining preventable safety events. Additionally, safety research has focused on harm caused by the patient instead of harm caused by mental health services, such as delays in access or diagnosis.

A multicenter collaborative effort to reduce preventable patient harm due to retained surgical items.

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Carmack A, Valleru J, Randall KH, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49:3-13.

Retained surgical items (RSI) are a never event, a serious and preventable event. After experiencing a high rate of RSIs, this United States health system implemented a bundle to reduce RSI, improve near-miss reporting, and increase process reliability in operating rooms. The bundle consisted of five elements: surgical stop, surgical debrief, visual counters, imaging, and reporting.

Interventions into reliability-seeking health care organizations: a systematic review of their goals and measuring methods.

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Auschra C, Asaad E, Sydow J, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e1211-e1218.

Health systems are increasingly aiming to become high-reliability organizations, able to operate for an extended period without serious accidents. This systematic review identified 75 studies reporting on health systems’ interventions to improve reliability, the goals of the interventions, and how achievement of the goals was measured. The six goals of Crossing the Quality Chasm were used to categorize studies. Most studies focused solely or in part on safety; only ten focused solely on one of the other five goals.

Interprofessional team collaboration and work environment health in 68 US intensive care units.

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Pun BT, Jun J, Tan A, et al. Am J Crit Care. 2022;31:443-451.

Team collaboration is an essential part of ensuring patient safety in acute care settings. This survey of care team members (including nurses, physicians, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and rehabilitation therapists) assessed teamwork and collaboration across 68 intensive care units (ICUs). Teamwork and work environment were rated favorably but care coordination and meaningful recognition were rated least favorably.

Critical care clinicians' experiences of patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Rosen A, Carter D, Applebaum JR, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022;18:e1219-e1225.

The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging impacts on care delivery and patient safety. This study examined the relationship between critical care clinician experiences related to patient safety during the pandemic and COVID-19 caseloads during the pandemic. Findings suggest that as COVID-19 caseloads increased, clinicians were more likely to perceive care as less safe.

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