Journal of Patient Safety最新文献

Objectives: Patient safety is poorly developed in dentistry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of patient safety perception and quality culture in French university dental hospitals.

Methods: A national survey was performed using a questionnaire that was sent electronically to dental students, teachers, senior professionals, and paramedics of the university dental clinics that volunteered to participate. The profile of the respondents, their involvement in quality teams, the occurrence of adverse events, and the organization of the department were explored.

Results: Of the 17 university dental hospitals in France, 15 volunteered to participate, representing 681 respondents (65.9% students, 26.9% dentists, 3.7% paramedics, and 3.5% residents). Despite 58% of the respondents being aware of the procedure for declaring adverse events, only 28% of them had ever declared at least one. All professionals were aware of the high incidence of adverse events in their clinics. The perception of well-being and organization was low, especially for the items "adequation between tasks and number of professionals" and for "task organization." The perception of "team spirit and feeling of respect" was good.

Conclusions: The survey highlighted the need for courses and meetings on patient safety and quality, but also the good perception of dental care providers regarding patient safety. The lack of materials and of human resources emerged as a key point for improving patient safety in university dental hospitals. Nonetheless, communication was also perceived as very important and could be improved without incurring costs and through internal solutions.

Objectives: Mayo Clinic's hospital-at-home program, Advanced Care at Home (ACH), launched in 2020. While hospital-at-home literature reported safe and effective care for the general patient population and those with COVID, comparative outcomes between these two groups were unknown. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to compare the outcomes of COVID and non-COVID patients enrolled in ACH and evaluate if COVID patients can be safely treated in this setting.

Methods: Demographics, clinical characteristics, and safety outcomes were retrospectively analyzed to compare COVID and non-COVID patients discharged from ACH between November 2020 and May 2022. Patient characteristics analyzed included severity of illness (SOI) and risk of mortality (ROM), calculated using All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (APR-DRG). Hospitalization-specific variables included length of stay (LOS), escalation of care, and 30-day readmission rates.

Results: Of 1051 patients, 173 (16%) had COVID, and 878 (84%) were non-COVID patients. The average age in the COVID cohort was 66.6 (15.3) years, compared with 72.2 (14.0) in the non-COVID cohort. Extreme SOI was higher in the COVID group (43.3% versus 17.4%), as was extreme ROM (46.2% versus 16.2%), but LOS was shorter (5.7 versus 7 days). Escalation of care (7.5% in COVID cohort versus 8.4%) and 30-day readmission outcomes (9.2% for COVID patients versus 12.9%) were not statistically different between the groups.

Conclusions: Despite higher SOI and ROM, COVID patients had shorter LOS with outcomes that were not statistically different from non-COVID patients. COVID patients can be safely and efficiently cared for in ACH.

Objectives: One in 20 outpatients in the United States experiences a diagnostic error each year, but there are no validated methods for collecting feedback from patients on diagnostic safety. We examined patient experience surveys to determine whether patients' free text comments indicated diagnostic breakdowns. Our objective was to evaluate associations between patient-perceived diagnostic breakdowns reported in free text comments and patients' responses to structured survey questions.

Methods: We conducted an exploratory mixed methods study using data from patient experience surveys collected from adult ambulatory care patients March 2020 to June 2020 in a large U.S. health system. Data analysis included content analysis of qualitative data and statistical analysis of quantitative data.

Results: In 2525 surveys with negative comments, 619 patients (24.5%) identified diagnostic breakdowns, including issues with accuracy (n = 282, 46%), timeliness (n = 243, 39%), or communication (n = 290, 47%); some patients (n = 181) reported breakdowns in multiple categories. Patients who gave a low average score (50 or less on a 100-point scale) on provider questions were almost seven times more likely to perceive a diagnostic breakdown than patients who scored their provider higher. Similarly, patients who gave a low average score on practice-related questions were twice as likely to perceive a diagnostic breakdown.

Conclusions: Patient feedback in routinely collected patient experience surveys is a valuable and actionable information source on diagnostic breakdowns in the ambulatory setting. The more easily monitored structured survey data provide a screening method to identify encounters that may have included a patient-perceived diagnostic breakdown and therefore require further examination.

Objectives: There is a need for effective and engaging training methods to enhance technical and nontechnical skills in robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), where deficiencies can compromise safety and efficiency. This study aims to evaluate the impact of a gamified team training intervention, the "RAS Olympics," on the safety and efficiency of RAS procedures.

Methods: The study was conducted at a 958-bed tertiary care academic medical center in with a robust robotic surgery program. A total of 56 RAS procedures (general, urology, and gynecology) were included in the analysis, with a mix of procedure types representative of the surgical caseload at the medical center. A pretest posttest experimental design was employed, comparing the frequency and severity of flow disruptions (FD) between preintervention, postintervention without "RAS Olympics" participants, and postintervention with "RAS Olympics" participants. The "RAS Olympics" involved safety hazard identification, troubleshooting, workspace navigation, instrument retrieval, and turnover optimization.

Results: Postintervention cases with "RAS Olympics" participants exhibited significantly lower overall FDs compared to the postintervention control group. The reduction was particularly notable during phase 3 (surgeon on console) and in cases involving more severe FDs.

Conclusions: Gamified team training interventions may improve the safety and efficiency of RAS procedures. The positive outcomes underscore the potential of innovative and engaging training methods to address the evolving challenges in surgical practice, emphasizing the relevance of gamification in healthcare education. As the healthcare landscape continues to advance, incorporating such interventions may be crucial in ensuring the adaptability and competence of surgical teams.

Objectives: Hospital-based behavioral emergency response teams (BERT) respond to acute behavioral disturbances among hospitalized patients. We aimed to examine associations between altered mental status in postanesthesia care unit (PACU) and behavioral disturbances on surgical wards requiring BERT activation.

Methods: Electronic medical records of patients who underwent general anesthesia and were admitted to the PACU between May 2018-December 2020 were reviewed for episodes of BERT activations on surgical wards. Characteristics of BERT patients were compared with the rest of surgical population during the same period to examine risk factors for BERT.

Results: Of 56,275 adult surgical patients, 133 patients had 178 BERT activations (incidence 2.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.0-2.8 per 1000 admissions), with 21 being for physical assault. The risk for BERT activation was increased with each decade over age of 50 as well as younger age (30 versus 50 y), male sex (odds ratio [OR] = 2.48, 95% CI 1.69, 3.62), longer procedures (OR = 1.08 per 30 minutes, 95% CI 1.05, 1.11), and alterations in mental status in PACU, with both moderate/deep sedation (OR = 1.63, 95% CI 1.04, 2.57) and agitation/combative state (OR = 8.47, 95% CI 5.13, 14.01), P < 0.001 for all comparisons.

Conclusions: Early postoperative agitation and oversedation are associated with BERT activation on surgical wards. Altered mental status in PACU should be conveyed to accepting hospital units so healthcare staff can be vigilant for the potential development of behavioral disturbances.

Background: Medical errors are responsible for a large number of deaths every year in the Unites States. Hospitals use various strategies including leadership, staffing, and structural changes to deal with this concerning issue. Hospital physician integration is a structural strategy to possibly improve patient safety. Using the conceptual lens of Donabedian's Structure Process Outcome model, this study aims to investigate how hospital physician integration affects organizational, management, and communication attributes of patient safety culture.

Methods: A pooled cross sectional study design using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, the American Hospital Association data, and Area Health Resource File was used to analyze the relationship between hospital physician integration and organizational and management patient safety culture attributes. The dataset comprised of hospital level data from 2021 and 2022 for patient safety culture and hospital characteristics and contained a final sample of 205 observations. The independent variable was levels of integration across five levels. Three attributes of safety culture were chosen-positive perceptions of communication openness, organizational learning, and hospital management support for patient safety. The control variables were organizational characteristics. Multivariable linear regression was used as the analytic method.

Results: Findings demonstrated a statistically significant correlation between higher level of hospital physician integration and positive perceptions of hospital management support for patient safety. There are 0.063 higher positive perceptions of hospital management support for patient safety for higher levels of integration compared with lower levels of integration ( P < 0.05). Perceptions of communication openness and organizational learning did not demonstrate a statistically significant correlation with any level of hospital physician integration.

Conclusions: Hospital physician integration and hospital management support for patient safety were moderately but significantly related. Hospital physician integration allows resources to become available for physician. As physicians take on management roles management of resources and eventually performance can improve, there is a need for future research in this area to examine if integration is a step in the right direction to overcome the challenges of patient safety and if investments in resources and training can be beneficial to safety culture.

Introduction: Air embolism is a potentially serious complication of central venous catheter (CVC) use. While CVC insertion is usually performed by a trained specialist, extraction is frequently the responsibility of junior staff members. This complication can be easily prevented by following several simple measures described in common guidelines.

Aim: We conducted a single-center survey to assess knowledge and practices concerning the prevention of air embolism associated with CVC removal among healthcare workers from nonintensive care units.

Methods: The correct answers to the questionnaire were determined according to best-practice recommendations for CVC removal. Based on a comparison of the total sum of correct answers between the categories of groups, factors that predicted the level of knowledge were identified using an independent sample t test.

Results: Of the 156 respondents, one-third were unfamiliar with air embolism as a complication of CVC extraction. Almost 80% were unaware of the existence of a CVC removal protocol. Almost half of respondents did not follow guidelines regarding patient position when removing a CVC, 72% did not ask the patient to perform the Valsalva maneuver during the procedure, and 54% did not ask the patient to remain supine after the procedure. Adherence to the protocol was correlated with professional experience, with a lower level among those with experience of less than 1 year and, particularly, among interns.

Conclusions: Our survey revealed inappropriately low awareness of CVC removal-associated air embolism risk and low familiarity with CVC removal best-practice recommendations among nonintensive care unit healthcare workers. Staff members with experience of less than 1 year, including interns, were found to have a lower level of knowledge. These findings emphasize the importance of development and distribution an internal hospital protocol and the integration of educational intervention into a preliminary internship program.

Objectives: The aims of the study were to identify the characteristics of medication-related malpractice claims occurring in the ambulatory setting across 2 time periods.

Methods: A retrospective, descriptive study was used. Ambulatory medication-related closed malpractice events from loss years of 2011-2021 were analyzed. Analysis included gender and age, injury severity, location, major injury, medications, primary and secondary services, roles, contributing factors, primary drivers, indemnity paid, and disposition status. Findings were analyzed using the Candello Explore tool.

Results: Five hundred four ambulatory medication-related closed malpractice events were included. Family medicine (19.4%) and internal medicine (10.4%) services had the largest number of claims. The top medications were anti-infectants (16.4%), narcotics (15.6%), and anticoagulants (14.4%). Medication-related claims were multifactorial, averaging 4.1 contributing factors per claim. Clinical judgment issues were found in over 55% of the claims, and communication factors were observed in almost 48% of the claims. In the comparison analysis, 433 claims from 2011 to 2015 and 161 claims from 2016 to 2021 were evaluated. A statistical decrease in claims involving anticoagulants and narcotics (P = 0.01) was seen in the second period. There was a statistical increase in claims involving pharmacy dispensing errors during the 2016-2021 period (P = 0.03).

Conclusions: Adverse drug events in ambulatory care are multifactorial. Errors in the technical process of ordering and managing medications, patient education, patient adherence, and pharmacy dispensing were the primary drivers of ambulatory medication malpractice claims in this study.