ECRI issues annual list of Patient Safety Concerns

Editor's Note

ECRI, on March 14, issued its annual list of Patient Safety Concerns, which is dominated this year by staffing shortages and healthcare workers’ mental health that have been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, the top concerns were typically associated with clinical issues caused by device malfunctions or medical errors.

“The top 10 patient safety concerns for 2022 are:

1. Staffing shortages
2. COVID-19 effects on healthcare workers’ mental health
3. Bias and racism in addressing patient safety
4. Vaccine coverage gaps and errors
5. Cognitive biases and diagnostic error
6. Nonventilator healthcare-associated pneumonia
7. Human factors in operationalizing telehealth
8. International supply chain disruptions
9. Products subject to emergency use authorization
10. Telemetry monitoring.”

ECRI’s president and CEO, Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, urges healthcare and government  leaders to “aggressively manage these challenges amidst a lingering pandemic and a weakened health system  by prioritizing recruitment, retention, and clinician resilience.”