Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns in 2020

Released in conjunction with National Patient Safety Awareness week, ECRI Institute's Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2020 raises the profile of safety issues that pose risks to patients and healthcare providers.

The report relies on the analysis of more than 3.2 million patient safety events in ECRI's patient safety organization reporting program, as well as the judgement and experience of its interdisciplinary patient safety and medication safety experts.

Proactively addressing many of the concerns on this list is an essential part of preventing the further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the organization said.

"Unsafe healthcare delivery harms millions of patients," said Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and CEO at ECRI. "Our annual patient safety report provides a roadmap to health healthcare leaders know what goes wrong and how to prevent harm."

ECRI has developed a Coronavirus Outbreak Preparedness Center to help hospitals, health systems, ambulatory care, and aging services facilities protect workers, patients, residents, and the public as the threat of coronavirus reaches across the globe.

Over the years, ECRI has witnessed other catastrophic events—including outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Ebola—and has learned lessons that are pertinent for dealing with current crises such as the outbreak of coronavirus, the organization noted.