What’s New in the
Patient Safety World
May 2018
ECRI Top 10 Patient
Safety Concerns for 2018
Every year ECRI
Institute publishes its list of the “Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for
Healthcare Organizations”.
The list for 2018 (ECRI 2018):
- Diagnostic errors
- Opioid safety across the continuum of care
- Internal care coordination
- Workarounds
- Incorporating health IT into patient safety programs
- Management of behavioral health needs in acute care settings
- All-hazards emergency preparedness
- Device cleaning, disinfection and sterilization
- Patient engagement and health literacy
- Leadership engagement in patient safety
All 10 topics are
ones we’ve covered in numerous columns. As usual, we’ll only comment on a few of
this year’s topics and let you go to the ECRI document for details of these and
all the others.
It should be no
surprise that diagnostic errors head the list, though they were not on last
year’s Top 10 list. ECRI emphasizes that diagnostic errors are the result of
cognitive, systemic, or a combination of cognitive and systemic factors. ECRI
acknowledges that diagnostic errors often go undetected by clinicians and
healthcare organizations but data on diagnostic errors and near misses might be
captured from multiple sources, such as event-reporting systems, malpractice
and payment claims, patient complaints, patient surveys, autopsies, and record
reviews.
Miscommunication is
a common factor contributing to both diagnostic errors and internal care
coordination (#3 on the list). ECRI discusses use of standardized handoff
tools, checklists, and safety huddles to improve internal care coordination.
We’re glad to see
workarounds on the list (#4 on the list). We’ve
done numerous columns on the impact or workarounds. We encourage discussion of
workarounds on Patient Safety Walk Rounds (see our February 27, 2017 Patient
Safety Tip of the Week “Update
on Patient Safety Walk Rounds”).
Whenever you see a workaround, there is virtually always an underlying system
problem that led to the use of a workaround. That system problem needs to be
addressed.
The report also has
links to ECRI’s many fine resources for each topic.
We’ll let you go to the full ECRI list for details. Click here to go to the ECRI Institute site where you can download the list.
Another “Top 10” list worth mention is Becker’s Hospital Review’s “10 Top Patient Safety Issues for 2018” (Vaidya 2018). Becker’s list:
- Disparate HER’s
- Hand hygiene
- Nurse-patient ratios
- Drug and medical supply shortages
- Quality reporting
- Resurgent diseases
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Physician burnout
- Antibiotic resistance
- Opioid epidemic
See the Becker’s link for details.
The lack of more overlap of these lists is striking but it’s hard to argue with either list. These are all patient safety concerns that pose significant threats to all healthcare organizations.
References:
ECRI (ECRI Institute). ECRI Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations 2018; ECRI Institute 2018; March 2018
https://www.ecri.org/Pages/Top-10-Patient-Safety-Concerns.aspx
Vaidya A, Zimmerman B, Bean M. 10 top patient safety issues for 2018. Becker’s Hospital Review 2018; January 09, 2018
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/10-top-patient-safety-issues-for-2018.html
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