Top 10 patient safety concerns released by ECRI Institute

ECRI Institute has released its annual top patient safety concerns for 2017, which aims to identify potential threats to patient safety while addressing challenges and offering suggestions and resources to address them.

ECRI complied the list as a checklist for healthcare organizations in the improvement to patient information security. By identifying what patients see as threats and solutions is set to increase the trusyt between patient and healthcare system.

“Since 2009, when our patient safety organization (PSO), ECRI Institute PSO, began collecting patient safety events, we and our partner PSOs have received more than 1.5 million event reports,” stated the report. “That means that the 10 patient safety concerns on this list are very real. They are causing harm—often serious harm—to real people.”

The top 10 patient safety concerns of 2017 include:

1. Information management in EHRs.
2. Unrecognized patient deterioration.
3. Implementation and use of clinical decision support.
4. Test result reporting and follow-up.
5. Antimicrobial stewardship.
6. Patient identification.
7. Opioid administration and monitoring in acute care.
8. Behavioral health issues in non-behavioral-health settings.
9. Management of new oral anticoagulants.
10. Inadequate organization system or processes to improve safety and quality.

ECRI Institute provides a list of resources and in-depth guidance on specific topics.