Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2020
Learn how to identify and address patient safety concerns in your facilities
The 2020 edition of our Top 10 list features new topics, with an emphasis on concerns that have the biggest potential impact on patient health across all care settings. However, the number one topic on this year's list is one that we're revisiting: missed and delayed diagnoses.
An estimated 12 million Americans experience a diagnostic error in the primary care setting each year. Missed or delayed diagnoses prevent the timely delivery of care and can negatively impact patient outcomes—resulting in permanent damage or death. The recommendations ECRI provides in this executive brief are based on data and experience from adverse events submitted through our Patient Safety Organization and will help patient safety, risk, and quality professionals limit these risks.
As multiple new topics this year illustrate, patient safety concerns are not confined to the acute care setting. This year we shine a light on:
- Maternal health challenges in ambulatory, specialty, and acute care settings
- The dangers of incorrect matching in their electronic health record
- Antibiotics prescribed when no longer needed, in the wrong dose, and with the wrong indication
Proactively addressing many of the concerns on this list is an essential part of preventing the further spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). For other ways to prepare to combat the COVID-19 outbreak at your facility, visit ECRI’s COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak Preparedness Center.