ECRI, an independent nonprofit organization improving the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of care across all healthcare settings worldwide, has released its Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2020, naming diagnostic errors and maternal health in the top two spots. The annual report helps organizations identify looming patient safety challenges across the continuum of care, and includes suggestions and resources for addressing them. The launch was in conjunction with Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 8-14.
"Unsafe healthcare delivery harms millions of patients," said Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and CEO, ECRI. "Our annual patient safety report provides a roadmap to help healthcare leaders know what goes wrong and how to prevent harm."
ECRI's Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns relies on the analysis of more than 3.2 million patient safety events in its Patient Safety Organization reporting program, as well as the judgment and experience of its interdisciplinary patient safety and medication safety experts. This list identifies areas that are high priorities for a variety of reasons, such as new risks, existing concerns that are changing because of new technology or care delivery models, and persistent issues that need focused attention or pose new opportunities for intervention.
ECRI's list of patient safety concerns for 2020:
The full Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns report provides detailed steps that organizations can take proactively to prevent adverse incidents.
In keeping with its mission of effective, evidence-based healthcare globally, ECRI launched a publicly available COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak Preparedness Center to help hospitals protect healthcare workers and patients as the threat of coronavirus rapidly spreads across the globe.
ECRI's 2020 Top patient safety concerns: diagnostic errors, maternal health. Appl Rad Oncol.