Inexperienced clinicians pose the largest patient safety risk in 2024: report
Dive Brief:
Helping newly trained clinicians transition from education to practice topped healthcare experts’ list of patient safety concerns for 2024, according to a new report from nonprofit ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.
Junior clinicians who graduated training during the COVID-19 pandemic entered a disrupted field, where protocols changed rapidly and mentorship opportunities were scarce compared with years past. Without sufficient training and support, junior staff may “contribute directly to patient harm events,” according to the report.
ECRI and ISMP also said medication administration and technology adoption issues, barriers to accessing maternal and perinatal care, and healthcare worker burnout were other top patient safety concerns this year.
Dive Insight:
To create the top 10 list of patient safety concerns, the ECRI and ISMP report identified patient safety concerns and ranked the topics by severity, frequency, breadth, insidiousness and organization pressure.
ECRI’s top concern was the risk posed by new staff, who often had a reduced sense of mindfulness around safety and were less likely than more seasoned professionals to report safety incidents, according to the report.
“Through no fault of their own, clinicians who started practicing medicine in the last several years didn’t have the same early experience as those who came before them,” said Marcus Schabacker, president and CEO of ECRI, in a release accompanying the survey.
The nonprofit suggests health systems invest in training, onboarding and mentorship to reduce the patient safety risks associated with under-supported junior staff.
ECRI rated barcode workarounds as the second most pressing patient safety concern for 2024. Clinicians often use workarounds when there are scanning or labeling errors with medications. Workarounds could include administering drugs to patients even when a barcode will not scan.
Frequent use of workarounds could indicate issues with staff training, device configuration or system support, according to the report.
The ECRI report also identified safety risks associated with the rise in closures of maternal care services. Patients have increased risks of pregnancy-related deaths, preterm deliveries, infant mortality, and other adverse outcomes when they are unable to access maternal care, according to the report.
Approximately 2.2 million women at reproductive age in the U.S. live in “maternity care deserts” — counties without hospitals that offer obstetric care, birth centers, obstetrics-gynecology providers or certified nurse midwives, according to the report.
The crisis is predicted to worsen by 2030, when the there will be a deficiency of women’s health service providers, per a 2021 study from agencies including the Health Resources and Services Administration and the HHS. Nationwide, the number of obstetricians and gynecologists is predicted to decrease 7% between 2018 and 2030 as demand for services increases in tandem.
The ECRI report also said healthcare technology implementation, including artificial intelligence, is a potential safety concern.
While health systems have increased their uptake of digital technologies — particularly to help alleviate provider burnout by assisting with documentation — AI used to assist with diagnoses could make errors or lead to inappropriate care decisions, according to the report.
The report said unanswered questions about AI, such as privacy issues, uncertainty of liability and how to integrate the tools into the broader tech stack, could compromise patient safety.
The federal government has launched initiatives scrutinizing and attempting to regulate AI in healthcare. Lawmakers have held hearings to consider the privacy and bias implications of the technology. The HHS has also begun efforts to stand up a task force that will establish AI governance standards in the industry.
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