Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2025

Learn how to identify and address patient safety concerns in your facilities ECRI's Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2025 highlights the most pressing safety challenges facing both patients and staff...

ECRI's Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2025: A Critical Tool for Healthcare Providers across the Continuum

Patient safety is a cornerstone of healthcare, and each year, new challenges arise that require proactive action from healthcare organizations. ECRI's Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns identifies crit...

Understanding Healthcare as a Complex System: A Guide for Healthcare Workers

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, every professional—including doctors, nurses, administrative assistants, and environmental services workers—plays a vital role in ensuring the well-bei...

Mitigating Third-Party Risks in Healthcare: Protecting Patient Care and Data

In the modern healthcare landscape, a large portion of critical services, from scheduling and billing to electronic health records (EHRs), radiology systems, and other essential clinical tools, are...

Enhancing Patient Safety through Systems Thinking in Healthcare

Every day, healthcare workers—from nurses to procurement specialists to security personnel—navigate a complex landscape dedicated to patient care. Despite their best efforts, healthcare systems are...

The Importance of Awareness and Reporting in Healthcare Incident Management

Introduction Healthcare incident management begins with the crucial steps of awareness and reporting.  Delaying these steps can have significant consequences, leading to repeated incidents before t...

ECRI's Top 10 Health Technology Hazards: A Vital Resource for Healthcare Providers

We're excited to announce that ECRI's highly anticipated annual report—Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2025—is on the way and is launching early! This report is crucial for healthcare organiza...

The Four Greatest Weaknesses in the American Healthcare System Fueling Preventable Harm

Every clinician swore an oath to “do no harm,” and yet, while unintentional, preventable harm is inflicted on patients every day in healthcare.   For decades, valiant efforts have been underway to ...

Supporting Nurses in Transition: Addressing Patient Safety Concerns in 2024

For 2024, one of the most pressing concerns in healthcare is ensuring the safe and effective transition of new nurses from their education into clinical practice. As the frontline of patient care, ...

Understanding “Human Factors” is Not “Factors Associated with Being Human”

Modern healthcare relies on a variety of physical and digital assets and tools. Sophisticated medical devices help in diagnosing and treating disease. Advanced materials prevent the spread of bacte...

Advancing Safe and Equitable Healthcare: The New Patient Safety Structural Measure by CMS

On July 31, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a significant update to the hospital quality reporting program with the finalization of the Patient Safety Structu...

Introducing SALUTE: Ensuring Equitable Healthcare for Veterans

Designing a healthcare delivery system that ensures equitable care for all patients is crucial for achieving total systems safety. This includes building partnerships among patients, families, and ...

Diagnostic Excellence in Dementia Care White Paper

Learn more about barriers to timely and accurate dementia diagnosis, and how a systems safety strategy can improve diagnostic excellence. ECRI's white paper: Diagnostic Excellence in Dementia Care ...

ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2024

ECRI recently published our Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2024 Special Report—the annual guide that calls attention to pressing patient safety concerns facing the healthcare industry. For thi...

IWD 2024: How to Continue Progress in Cervical Cancer Screening

International Women’s Day is an opportune time to celebrate improvements in women’s health outcomes—and reflect on steps we can take to achieve even more progress. For this blog, we’re focusing on ...

Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2024

Learn how to identify and address patient safety concerns in your facilities ECRI's Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2024 identifies imminent safety challenges for patients and staff that we beli...

15 Years as a PSO. Decades Improving Safety.

This year, ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices PSO celebrates our 15th anniversary as an AHRQ-listed Patient Safety Organization. Over this decade and a half, we have worked tirele...

10 Steps to Preventing Patient Elopement

Patient elopement is when individuals leave an area they are expected to stay within, for their safety. Elopement from a healthcare facility can have devastating consequences for a patient, includi...

Video Recordings of Surgical Procedures: How to Ensure Consent, Privacy, and Confidentiality

Many organizations record surgical procedures performed at their facilities with the intention of using the footage for educational or quality assurance purposes, among other reasons. However, it i...

Medical Errors and Health IT: What Does the Data Say?

Health information technology (IT) is a powerful tool for documenting and sharing information about patients’ health and helping providers to make well-informed decisions about patient care. Howeve...

Non-medical Discharge: Navigating Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Considerations

Hospitals may wish to discharge patients for a variety of non-medical reasons (e.g., if the patient is being violent towards staff, patients, or visitors; if the patient is exhibiting racist behavi...