This March marks the 21st Patient Safety Awareness Week, first initiated in 2002 by the National Patient Safety Foundation to invite conversations on how to reduce harm and improve care.
In this issue, you will find four articles that originated from the Patient Safety Authority’s fall master class in writing. Applicants submitted a description of a recent quality improvement study and those selected participated in a two-part workshop. The facilitators, Johns Hopkins’ Olivia Lounsbury and Patient Safety editors Caitlyn Allen and Eugene Myers, helped translate tremendous patient care into publishable manuscripts. (Keep an eye out for future workshops!)
The manuscripts include strategies to reduce adverse events from moderate sedation from Julia Bayne et al., a central line–associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) prevention project from Erin Lightheart et al. that applied a unique spin on virtual rounding, a promising approach to increasing sepsis bundle compliance in the emergency department from Megan Kiser et al., and a look at reducing urine culture contamination by Clare Cowen et al.
The team at MedStar Health Research Institute took a deep dive into two critical, fundamental topics: alarm design and equipment safety.
Rounding out the issue is an interview with Patient Safety Authority board chair, Dr. Nirmal Joshi, who has led the most robust patient safety state agency for almost a year. He shared his thoughts on how to—finally—address the challenges we’re all facing but have yet to be able to solve.
This journal was designed for our authors to freely share the important work they do to improve patient safety, and for our readers to freely receive the information, strategies, and lessons learned to make the care they provide and receive safer. Thank you to our authors, reviewers, staff, editorial board, and readers for your continued contributions.
Stay safe and stay well!