AHRQ Patient Safety Network Chronicles More Than a Decade of Developments in Patient Safety
For the latest news and resources on patient safety, access the AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet). The website, launched in April 2005, offers weekly updates of patient safety literature, news, tools and meetings (access "Current Issue”), as well as annotated links to important research and other information. PSNet also hosts AHRQ WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web)content, including “Cases and Commentaries” as well as “Perspectives on Safety.”
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Communication With Consultants
Steven L. Cohn, MD; June 2016
When a pregnant woman with fever, nausea, and headaches presented to the emergency department (ED), laboratory tests showed an incredibly high white blood cell count. Although the ED contacted the hematology service for a consultation, the urgency of the patient's clinical status was not conveyed, leading to a fatal delay in diagnosing and treating her acute myeloid leukemia.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Falling Through the Crack (in the Bedrails)
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Patricia C. Dykes, PhD, RN; Wai Yin Leung, MS; and Vincent Vacca, RN, MSN; May 2016
Multiple alarms went off in an ICU room after an intern and resident performed paracentesis on an older patient. Nurses found the patient confused and trying to get out of bed. She had pulled out her nasogastric and endotracheal tubes, her leg was stuck in the bedrails, and she had a large cut on her foot.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Mismanagement of Delirium
Jennifer Merrilees, RN, PhD, and Kirby Lee, PharmD, MA, MAS; May 2016
An elderly man with early dementia fractured his leg and was admitted to a skilled nursing facility for physical therapy. On his third day there, he became delirious and agitated and was taken to the emergency department and hospitalized. A few days later, doctors involuntarily committed him and administered risperidone, which worsened his delirium.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
The Fluidity of Diagnostic "Wet Reads"
Cindy S. Lee, MD, and Christopher P. Hess, MD, PhD; May 2016
An older man with a history of heavy smoking and chest pain underwent a chest CT in the emergency department that showed no evidence of an aortic dissection on the preliminary read. Although the patient followed up soon thereafter with a new primary care physician, it was not discovered until several months later that a suspicious lung nodule had been spotted on the initial CT.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Dropping to New Lows
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Patricia Juang, MD, and Kristen Kulasa, MD; April 2016
While hospitalized, a man with diabetes had difficult-to-control blood sugars, with multiple episodes of both critical hypoglycemia and serious hyperglycemia. Because "holds" of the patient's insulin were not clearly documented in the electronic health record and blood sugar readings were not uploaded in real time, providers were unaware of how much insulin had actually been given.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Lost in Sign Out and Documentation
Michael E. Detsky, MD, MSc; April 2016
During a hospitalization after a cardiac arrest, an older man underwent placement of a PEG tube for nutrition, and an abdominal radiograph the next day showed "free air under the diaphragm." Although the resident got a "curbside consult" from surgery saying this finding should be monitored, the consult was not documented in the chart. Two days later, the patient was urgently taken to surgery to repair a large gastric perforation and spillage of tube feeds into the peritoneum and then transferred to the ICU in septic shock.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Situational Awareness and Patient Safety
Jeanne M. Farnan, MD, MHPE; April 2016
A man with a pulmonary embolus was ordered argatroban for anticoagulation. The next day, an intern noticed that the patient in the next room, a woman with a GI bleed, had argatroban hanging on her IV pole, but the label showed the name of the man with the pulmonary embolus. The nurse was notified, the medication was stopped, and the error was disclosed to the patient.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Robotic Surgery: Risks vs. Rewards
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Tara Kirkpatrick, MD, and Chad LaGrange, MD; February 2016
Despite mechanical problems with the robotic arms during a robotic-assisted prostatectomy, the surgeon continued using the technology and completed the operation. Following the procedure, the patient developed serious bleeding requiring multiple blood transfusions, several additional surgeries, and a prolonged hospital stay.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Picking Up the Cause of the Stroke
Vineet Chopra, MD, MSc; February 2016
Hospitalized with poorly controlled diabetes, a man had a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placed for intravenous pain medications, intravenous fluids, and parenteral nutrition. The next day, the patient complained of headache, unilateral vision loss, and left-sided tingling and numbness. Misplacement of the PICC in a left-sided superior vena cava had led to embolic strokes.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Good Night's Sleep Gone Wrong
Christine M. Gillis, PharmD; Jeremy R. Degrado, PharmD; and Kevin E. Anger, PharmD; February 2016
Presenting with a cough and shortness of breath, a woman with end-stage renal disease was admitted to the medical floor after undergoing hemodialysis. She was given allergy and sleep medications at her home dosages. The next morning the patient was extremely drowsy and unresponsive to painful stimuli. A "Code Stroke" was called.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
A Room Without Orders
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Amy Vogelsmeier, PhD, RN, and Laurel Despins, PhD, RN; January 2016
Admitted to the hospital for chemotherapy, a man with leukemia and diabetes arrived on the medical unit on a busy afternoon and waited until his room was ready. The nurse who checked him in assumed that his admitting orders were completed on the previous shift. That night, the patient took his own insulin from home without a meal and experienced a preventable episode of hypoglycemia.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
New Patient Mistakenly Checked in as Another
Robert A. Green, MD, MPH, and Jason Adelman, MD, MS; January 2016
Presenting to his new primary physician's office for his first visit, a man was checked in under the record of an existing patient with the exact same name and age. The mistake wasn't noticed until the established patient received the new patient's test results by email.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Inadvertent Use of More Potent Acid Leads to Burn
Howard I. Maibach, MD; January 2016
An attending physician recommended using acetic acid to evaluate a lesion on the perineum of a woman who had previously experienced a wart in the same area. The resident physician asked the medical assistant for acetic acid and unknowingly received trichloroacetic acid, which burned the patient's skin.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Harm From Alarm Fatigue
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Michele M. Pelter, RN, PhD, and Barbara J. Drew, RN, PhD; December 2015
Following a non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, a man was admitted to the hospital and placed on a telemetry monitor. As the monitor was constantly sounding with "low voltage" and "asystole" alerts and the patient was well each time clinicians checked, they silenced the alarms. The patient was found dead 4 hours later.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Managing Ascites: Hazards of Fluid Removal
Kevin Moore, MBBS, PhD; December 2015
A man with cirrhosis and abdominal distension was found to have significant ascites. The emergency department providers performed a large volume paracentesis to relieve his symptoms, but, as the 10th liter of fluid was removed, the patient became acutely hypotensive.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Hyperglycemia and Switching to Subcutaneous Insulin
Tosha Wetterneck, MD, MS; December 2015
Hospitalized with nonketotic hyperglycemia, a man was placed on IV insulin and his blood sugars improved. That evening, the patient was transferred to the ICU with chest pain and his IV insulin order was changed to sliding scale subcutaneous insulin. However, over the next several hours, the patient again developed hyperglycemia.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
The Risks of Absent Interoperability: Medication-Induced Hemolysis in a Patient With a Known Allergy
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Jacob Reider, MD; October 2015
After leaving Hospital X against medical advice, a man with paraplegia presented to the emergency department of Hospital Y with pain and fever. The patient was diagnosed with sepsis and admitted to Hospital Y for management. In the night, the nurse found the patient unresponsive and called a code blue. The patient was resuscitated and transferred to the ICU, where physicians determined that the arrest was due to acute rupturing of his red blood cells (hemolysis), presumably caused by a reaction to the antibiotic. Later that day, the patient's records arrived from three hospitals where he had been treated recently. One record noted that he had previously experienced a life-threatening allergic reaction to the antibiotic, which was new information for the providers at Hospital Y.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
An Obstructed View
Jonathan Carter, MD; October 2015
A patient with severe abdominal pain was admitted to the medicine service for observation, pain control, and serial abdominal examinations. Surgical consultation was not requested at admission. Two days later, the patient's abdomen worsened. Consultation led to urgent surgery, which revealed a strangulating bowel obstruction and associated perforation.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Amphotericin Toxicity
Jerod Nagel, PharmD, and Eric Nguyen; October 2015
A woman who had recently had her left lung removed for aspergilloma presented to the outpatient clinic with pain, redness, and pus draining from her sternotomy site. She was admitted for surgical debridement and prescribed IV liposomal amphotericin B for aspergillus. Hours into the IV infusion, the patient developed nausea, vomiting, sweating, and shivering, and it was discovered that she had been given conventional amphotericin B at the dose intended for the liposomal formulation, representing a 5-fold overdose.
CASES & COMMENTARIES
Abdominal Pain in Early Pregnancy
- SPOTLIGHT CASE
- CME/CEU
Charlie C. Kilpatrick, MD; September 2015
After several days of abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, a pregnant woman visited the emergency department and was swiftly discharged with antibiotics for a UTI. However, she returned the next day with unchanged abdominal pain and more nausea and vomiting. Apart from a focused ultrasound to document her pregnancy, no further testing was done. The patient again returned the following day with increased pain and now appeared more ill. An MRI revealed a ruptured appendix.
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