Covid-19 Pandemic: Diagnostic Errors, Inadequate Healthcare Facilities and the Improvement of Patient Safety in Nigeria

The electronic health record: An essential tool for advancing patient safety

4th Decennial International Conference on Nosocomial and Healthcare-Associated Infections: A challenge for change

Safe and Secure? Healthcare in The Cyberworld

The purpose of this study is to understand how patient safety professionals from healthcare facilities and patient safety organizations develop patient safety interventions and the resources used to support intervention development. Semistructured interviews were conducted with patient safety professionals at nine healthcare facilities and nine patient safety organizations. Interview data were qualitatively analyzed, and findings were organized by the following: patient safety solutions and interventions, use of external databases, and evaluation of patient safety solutions. Development of patient safety interventions across healthcare facilities and patient safety organizations was similar and included literature searches, internal brainstorming, and interviews. Nearly all patient safety professionals at healthcare facilities reported contacting colleagues at other healthcare facilities to learn about similar safety issues and potential interventions. Additionally, less than half of patient safety professionals at healthcare facilities and patient safety organizations interviewed report data to publicly available patient safety databases. Finally, most patient safety professionals at healthcare facilities and patient safety organizations stated that they evaluate the effectiveness of patient safety interventions; however, they mentioned methods that may be less rigorous including audits, self-reporting, and subjective judgment. Patient safety professionals often utilize similar methods and resources to develop and evaluate patient safety interventions; however, many of these efforts are not coordinated across healthcare organizations and could benefit from working collectively in a systematic fashion. Additionally, healthcare facilities and patient safety organizations face similar challenges and there are several opportunities for optimization on a national level that may improve patient safety.

Overview of progress in patient safety

Patient safety is not a luxury

The Overarching Themes From the CLER National Report of Findings 2018.

Accurate diagnosis is critical for patient safety, guiding treatment and preventing harm. Diagnostic errors remain prevalent, contributing to avoidable harm, increased healthcare costs, and morbidity. Understanding diagnostic accuracy is essential to improving clinical outcomes. This review aims to systematically explore the impact of accurate diagnosis on patient safety, identifying challenges in current diagnostic practices and strategies for improvement. A comprehensive search of PubMed, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar was conducted from 2010-2024. Initial screening yielded 579 records, using keywords like "accurate diagnosis", "diagnostic errors", and "patient safety." A full-text review of 125 studies was conducted after duplicates were eliminated and titles and abstracts were screened for relevancy. Exclusion criteria excluded studies with inadequate data, non-English publications, and opinion pieces, while inclusion criteria mandated that studies concentrate on patient safety and diagnostic accuracy in acute care settings. Ultimately, 26 studies were found to meet the final eligibility requirements and were added to the review. Retrospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials were among the study designs. Accurate diagnosis was found to improve treatment efficacy, enhances patient safety, and reduces unnecessary procedures. Challenges include cognitive biases, insufficient diagnostic tools, and fragmented care. Technological advancements, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, were found to significantly enhance diagnostic precision. Despite these benefits, variability in clinical skills and systemic barriers remain substantial obstacles. Accurate diagnosis is essential to enhancing patient safety. The results of this review indicate that using AI tools, improving clinician training, and creating standardized diagnostic procedures may help reduce diagnostic errors; however, because of the small dataset and lack of meta-analysis, the findings should be interpreted cautiously. To further evaluate the effect of diagnostic accuracy on patient safety, future research should concentrate on carrying out larger-scale studies and statistical validations.

Program Directors Patient Safety and Quality Educators Network: A Learning Collaborative to Improve Resident and Fellow Physician Engagement.

Solving the Puzzle How to Cut Costs and Improve Service

Patient Safety: Grantmakers Join The Effort To Reduce Medical Errors

A Family and Hospital's Journey and Commitment to Improving Diagnostic Safety.

Improving patient safety by examining pathology errors

Introduction: Patient safety is one of the main components of health services quality which is defined as the prevention of harm to patients during health care provision. Medical students as members of the treatment team play an important role in patient safety. This study aimed to identify the role of medical students in patient safety in medical centers in Semnan province. Methods: This applied-qualitative study was carried out using a content analysis approach via the framework analysis method. The participants were key informants and experts of patient safety friendly hospital program. They were selected using purposive sampling and the sampling process continued until the data saturation (n=14). The data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using MAXQDA software (version 10). Results: Of 468 primary codes, 6 main codes were extracted including the importance of student education, student participation in teamwork, interaction with patients, medical errors and patient safety threats, standardization of educational processes, and the importance of completing medical documentation. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that students have a broad impact on patient safety. Professors and faculty members can improve patient safety and patient satisfaction by interacting with hospital managers, improving the knowledge and clinical capability of medical students, and reducing the impact of negative factors on patient safety.

The publication of To Err Is Human in 2000, followed by Crossing the Quality Chasm in 2001, marked a watershed in patient safety. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports intensified the focus on patient safety and demanded a redesign of the healthcare system to improve quality and safety. Since publication of these reports, the focus has been on improving processes--those methods of healthcare delivery prone to failure and errors. Recently, there has been a concerted and sustained drive to add cognitive (diagnostic) errors to the focus. The recent publication of the IOM's Improving Diagnosis in Health Care has expanded the focus on patient safety and quality improvement. A new focus on diagnostic errors augments rather than replaces the previous focus. In this article, the authors offer a brief review of To Err Is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm to lay a historical foundation. They then discuss a transition into the focus on diagnostic errors and summarize the latest recommendations from Improving Diagnosis in Health Care. This collated synthesis of 3 powerful IOM reports should guide risk managers and other healthcare personnel as they strive to improve every aspect of healthcare delivery.