Early Immersion in Team-Based Event Review: Experiential Patient Safety Education for PGY 1 Internal Medicine Residents.

Introduction: In recent years, there has been a national push to incorporate high-fidelity quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) education into physician training programs. In fact, integration of robust patient safety education became an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirement for residency programs in 2017. We developed a curriculum to not only fulfill the ACGME's requirement but also provide PGY 1 internal medicine residents with the skills needed to become active participants in ongoing patient safety work throughout their training and careers. Methods: Our patient safety curriculum was woven into residents' existing protected educational time and supported by a standardized facilitator guide and participant workbook. It combined didactic prework with the review of recent near-miss or low-harm patient safety events, empowering residents to identify root causes and propose interventions. Results: We successfully delivered our patient safety curriculum to 80 PGY 1 residents over the course of 2 academic years. Residents rated the curriculum as a valuable educational experience, and the event reviews they completed met most of the criteria for high-quality patient safety reviews according to the Strong String Assessment. Discussion: Implementation of this standardized curriculum has allowed us to reliably and consistently incorporate experiential patient safety education into the first year of training for internal medicine residents. Unlike purely didactic sessions, our curriculum encourages active learning, building muscle memory for event reviews that enables future engagement in patient safety activities.

Initial evidence of reliability and validity of an implicit association test assessing attitudes toward individuals who use substances.

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are stigmatized conditions, with individual biases driving poor health outcomes. There are surprisingly few validated measures of bias or stigma toward individuals who use substances. Bias can be classified as explicit (self-report) or implicit (behaviorally based).Objectives: The goal of the present study was to establish preliminary indices of reliability and validity of an implicit association test (IAT) designed to measure implicit bias toward individuals who use substances.Methods: A large United States-based, crowd-sourced sample (n = 394, 51.5% male, 45.4% female, 2.5% nonbinary) completed the IAT and a small battery of survey instruments that assessed social distance to mental illness (including heroin use), attitude toward and perceived controllability of injection drug use, perception of public stigma, and social desirability.Results: Nearly all (92%; n = 363) scores on the IAT indicated greater negative than positive attitudes toward those who use substances. Spearman-Brown corrected split-half reliability on the IAT scores was excellent, r = .953. Controlling for social desirability, IAT scores positively correlated with all included measures pertaining to substance use as well as social distance for heroin and schizophrenia (but not diabetes). A principal component analysis resulted in two interpretable components representing disapproval (perceived controllability and negative attitudes) and perceived stigma (social stigma and social distance). Scores on the IAT positively correlated to scores on both components, again, controlling for social desirability.Conclusion: These results provide compelling preliminary evidence of validity of an IAT designed to measure bias toward individuals who use substances.

Medically ready for discharge: A multisite "point-in-time" assessment of hospitalized patients.

BACKGROUND: Time spent awaiting discharge after the acute need for hospitalization has resolved is an important potential contributor to hospital length of stay (LOS). OBJECTIVE: To measure the prevalence, impact, and context of patients who remain hospitalized for prolonged periods after completion of acute care needs. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a cross-sectional "point-in-time" survey at each of 15 academic US hospitals using a structured data collection tool with on-service acute care medicine attending physicians in fall 2022. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Primary outcomes were number and percentage of patients considered "medically ready for discharge" with emphasis on those who had experienced a "major barrier to discharge" (medically ready for discharge for ≥1 week). Estimated LOS attributable to major discharge barriers, contributory discharge needs, and associated hospital characteristics were measured. RESULTS: Of 1928 patients sampled, 35.0% (n = 674) were medically ready for discharge including 9.8% (n = 189) with major discharge barriers. Many patients with major discharge barriers (44.4%; 84/189) had spent a month or longer medically ready for discharge and commonly (84.1%; 159/189) required some form of skilled therapy or daily living support services for discharge. Higher proportions of patients experiencing major discharge barriers were found in public versus private, nonprofit hospitals (12.0% vs. 7.2%; p = .001) and county versus noncounty hospitals (14.5% vs. 8.8%; p = .002). CONCLUSIONS: Patients experience major discharge barriers in many US hospitals and spend prolonged time awaiting discharge, often for support needs that may be outside of clinician control.

A Learning Community Supporting Experiential Education to Learn About Healthcare Equity Quality Improvement.

BACKGROUND: Quality improvement (QI) for healthcare equity (HCE) is an important aspect of graduate medical education (GME), but there is limited published research on educational programs teaching this topic. AIM: To describe and evaluate a novel curriculum and learning community for HCE QI. SETTING: Academic institution. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-eight participants: 32 learners and 16 faculty. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: This novel, longitudinal curriculum utilized a virtual hub-and-spoke learning community. Five interdepartmental teams of learners and faculty (spokes) used QI methods to address an existing institutional healthcare inequity (HCI). A team of experts (the hub) led monthly group meetings to foster the learning community and guide teams. PROGRAM EVALUATION: Retrospective pre-post curricular surveys assessed participant satisfaction, knowledge, and skills in applying QI methods to address HCIs. Response rate was 33%. The majority of participants (92.4%) reported an increase in knowledge and skills in conducting QI for HCIs. All participants reported an increased likelihood of future engagement in HCE QI. Final QI projects average QIPAT7 score was 25.8 (SD = 4.93), consistent with "meets expectations" in most categories. DISCUSSION: This program is a feasible model to teach GME learners and faculty about HCE QI and may be adopted by other institutions.

Supporting a culture of patient safety: Resident-led patient safety event reviews in a pathology residency training program.

Patient safety is a critical component of quality patient care at any healthcare institution. In order to support a culture of patient safety, and in the context of a hospital-wide patient safety initiative at our institution, we have created and implemented a new patient safety curriculum within our training program. The curriculum is embedded in an introductory course for first-year residents, in which residents gain an understanding of the multifaceted role of the pathologist in patient care. The patient safety curriculum is a resident-centered event review process and includes 1) identification and reporting of a patient safety event, 2) event investigation and review, and 3) presentation of findings to the residency program including core faculty and safety champions for the consideration of implementation of the identified systems solution. Here we discuss the development of our patient safety curriculum, which was trialed over a series of seven event reviews conducted between January 2021 and June 2022. Resident involvement in patient safety event reporting and patient safety event review outcomes were measured. All event reviews conducted thus far have resulted in the implementation of the solutions discussed during event review presentations based on cause analysis and identification of strong action items. Ultimately this pilot will serve as the basis by which we implement a sustainable curriculum in our pathology residency training program centered on supporting a culture of patient safety, and in line with ACGME requirements.

Toward Unity and Inclusion in the Clinical Workplace: An Evaluation of Healthcare Workforce Belonging During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: In a challenging time for the healthcare workforce responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is critical to identify factors contributing to team members' feelings of "belonging" in the workplace. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Quintuple Aim's principle of improving healthcare worker well-being could be applied to explore the implications of the increased turnover and stress, which connect to components of belonging. This study applies a qualitative approach to the organizational issues impacting healthcare teams, particularly during a complex and uncertain time. METHODS: To elucidate factors contributing to belonging, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with an interdisciplinary cross-sectional sample of healthcare workers. Interviews were conducted with 23 total staff members in two clinical settings, the emergency department and hospital medicine groups at a large urban teaching hospital, to evaluate team members' perspectives of the work environment. RESULTS: Participants discuss their degree of inclusion, excitement, challenges, and respective needs from the organization. Perspectives of workers representing varied professional roles of the healthcare team were gathered to provide robust and unique insights into initiatives that can enhance belonging in the clinical workplace. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide a preliminary framework to identify strategies that can potentially reinforce collective team member belonging and consequently improve staff well-being, morale, and retention.

Patient Safety Escape Room: A Team Simulation in Recognizing and Reporting Patient Safety Hazards.

Medical errors harm patients and increase costs. Engaging early clinicians in patient safety (PS) is critical but challenging. We evaluated the impact of a Patient Safety Escape Room (PSER) simulation on intern engagement in PS. During the PSER, learner teams identified PS hazards in a simulated hospital room, revealing clues that allow "escape" via event report entry. One-hundred twenty interns from 14 training programs completed 2 PSERs each. Before the PSER, 5% reported experience entering an event report. Following the PSER, all interns had participated in entering an event report. Mean learner-reported comfort in identifying PS hazards improved significantly (6.3 ± 1.57 to 8.0 ± 1.2; P < 0.001). Individual safety hazards were identified by between 6% and 100% of teams. Mean observer-rated teamwork was lower than learner-rated teamwork (41.5 ± 5.18 versus 45.92 ± 3.87; P = 0.01). Subsequent resident reporting rates did not increase compared with historic controls. The PSER engaged early learners, however, translating improvements into the clinical environment remains challenging.

Standardizing postoperative handoffs using the evidence-based IPASS framework through a multidisciplinary initiative improves handoff communication for neurosurgical patients in the neuro-intensive care unit.

Errors in communication are a major source of preventable medical errors. Neurosurgical patients frequently present to the neuro-intensive care unit (NICU) postoperatively, where handoffs occur to coordinate care within a large multidisciplinary team. A multidisciplinary working group at our institution started an initiative to improve postoperative neurosurgical handoffs using validated quality improvement methodology. Baseline handoff practices were evaluated through staff surveys and serial observations. A formalized handoff protocol was implemented using the evidence based IPASS format (Illness severity, Patient summary, Action list, Situational awareness and contingency planning, Synthesis by receiver). Cycles of objective observations and surveys were employed to track practice improvements and guide iterative process changes over one year. Surveys demonstrated improved perceptions of handoffs as organized (17.1% vs 69.7%, p < 0.001), efficient (27.0% vs. 72.7%, p < 0.001), comprehensive (17.1% vs. 66.7%, p < 0.001), and safe (18.0% vs. 66.7%, p < 0.001), noting improved teamwork (31.5% vs. 69.7%, p < 0.001). Direct observations demonstrated improved communication of airway concerns (47.1% observed vs. 92.3% observed, p < 0.001), hemodynamic concerns (70.6% vs. 97.1%, p = 0.001), intraoperative events (52.9% vs. 100%, p < 0.001), neurological examination (76.5% vs. 100%, p < 0.001), vital sign goals (70.6% vs. 100%, p < 0.001), and required postoperative studies (76.5% vs. 100%, p < 0.001). Receiving teams demonstrating improved rates of summarization (47.1% vs. 94.2%, p = 0.005) and asking questions (76.5% vs 98.1%, p = 0.004). The mean handoff time during long-term follow-up was 4.4 min (95% confidence interval = 3.9-5.0 min). Standardization of handoff practices yields improvements in communication practices for postoperative neurosurgical patients.

Prevalence and Characteristics of House Staff Quality and Safety Councils Within Clinical Learning Environments: Results of a National Survey.

House Staff Quality and Safety Councils (HQSCs) are relatively new multispecialty groups led by residents and fellows that focus on quality and safety activities at their training site. The authors sought to estimate the prevalence of HQSCs, describe their common characteristics and determine any perceived impacts. A national survey was conducted with Designated Institutional Officers (DIO) of graduate medical education programs in 2019. For institutions with an HQSC, a second survey was sent to program leaders to obtain additional details. Responses were obtained from 204 DIOs, 47% of whom currently have an HQSC. Forty-five percent of sites provided details about HQSC membership, leadership, funding, activities/initiatives, facilitators, and barriers. The majority reported positive program outcomes. This study found that HQSCs are common and share key characteristics, yet at the same time have many unique features tailored to their clinical learning environment. Participants report positive outcomes associated with these groups.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That Is the Question.

In the past 20 years, a variety of social media platforms have significantly changed how we interact, communicate, learn, and engage. Social media use by physicians and physicians in training has expanded dramatically and evolved in recent years. Here, we focus on the use of Twitter by medical professionals (#medtwitter) and analyze Twitter's role as a new tool for learning, teaching, networking, professional development, mentorship/sponsorship, and advocacy within medicine. We discuss principles of adult learning theory to support the effectiveness of the use of Twitter as an educational tool, and share best practice pearls as well.

Finding the 'QR' to Patient Safety: Applying Gamification to Incorporate Patient Safety Priorities Through a Simulated 'Escape Room' Experience.

Medical errors are the eighth leading cause of mortality in the United States and contribute to over one million preventable injuries. In an effort to prevent medical errors, reporting systems serve as invaluable tools to detect patient safety events and quality problems longitudinally. Historically, trainees (i.e., students and residents) rarely submit incident reports for encountered patient safety threats. The authors propose an immersive learning experience utilizing gamification theory and leveraging the increasingly popular 'escape room' to help resident trainees identify reportable patient safety priorities. All 130 incoming intern physicians at the Thomas Jefferson University (Jefferson) were enrolled in the Patient Safety Escape Room study as part of their residency orientation (June 2018). The residents were randomly divided into 16 teams. Each team was immersed in a simulated escape room, tasked with identifying a predetermined set of serious patient safety hazards, and successfully manually entering them into the Jefferson Event Reporting System within the time allotted to successfully 'win the game' by 'escaping the room'. Quick response (QR) codes were planted throughout the activity to provide in-game instructions; clues to solve the puzzle; and key information about patient safety priorities at Jefferson. All participants underwent a formal debriefing using the feedback capture grid method and completed a voluntary post-study survey, adapted from Brookfield's Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ). The study was IRB exempt. Thematic analysis of the post-activity CIQ survey (n = 102) revealed that interns were engaged during the immersive learning experience (n = 42) and were specifically engaged by having to independently identify patient safety threats (n = 30). Participants identified team role assignment (n = 52) and effective communication (n = 26) as the two most helpful actions needed to successfully complete the activity. Participants were overall surprised by the success of the education innovation (n = 45) and reported that it changed how they viewed patient safety threats. Areas for improvement include clearer game instructions and using a more streamlined event reporting process. The escape room patient-safety activity allowed interns to actively engage in an innovative orientation activity that highlighted the importance of patient safety hazards, as well as providing them with the opportunity to document event reports in real-time. Next steps will include longitudinally tracking the quantity of error reports entered by this cohort to determine the effectiveness of this educational intervention.

Leveraging Structural Changes in an Electronic Health Record Tool to Standardize Written Handoff.

Miscommunications during patient handoff can lead to harm. The I-PASS bundle has been shown to improve safety outcomes. Although effective training reliably improves verbal handoffs, research has demonstrated a lack of effect on written handoffs. The objective was to compare written handoff before and after integration of a standardized electronic health record (EHR) tool. Interns at a large urban academic medical center underwent I-PASS handoff training. The EHR handoff tool was then revised to prompt the I-PASS components. Handoff documents were obtained before and after the intervention. More handoffs included Illness Severity (33% to 59%, P < .001) and Action List (65% to 83%, P = .005) after the intervention. There was no change in handoffs with miscommunications (12.5% to 10%, P = .566) or omissions (8% to 11%, P = .447). Handoffs including tangential or unrelated information decreased (20% to 4%, P = .001). A written handoff tool can reinforce the effect of training and increase adherence to I-PASS.

Patient Safety Escape Room: A Graduate Medical Education Simulation for Event Reporting.

Introduction: Although residents are on the front lines of patient care, they enter few formal patient safety reports on the adverse events and near misses they witness. Demonstrating the rationale and mechanics of reporting may improve this. Methods: We designed and implemented an escape room patient safety simulation to incorporate active learning, gamification, and adult learning theory into intern patient safety onboarding. Interns from all sponsoring institution programs participated, identifying, mitigating, and reporting a range of patient safety hazards. Props and faculty time were the major resources required. Results: One hundred twenty interns participated in this simulation in June 2018. Forty-one percent reported previous training on reporting errors, and only 5% had previously entered an event report. Average confidence in ability to identify patient safety hazards improved after the simulation from 6.35 to 8.00 on a 10-point rating scale. The simulation was rated as relevant or highly relevant to practice by 96% of interns. Discussion: Several factors contribute to a low error-reporting rate among house staff. We developed a simulation modeled on popular escape room activities to increase awareness of safety hazards and ensure familiarity with the actual online reporting system our interns will use in the clinical environment.