Staffing Shortages and Clinician Mental Health Are Top Concerns for Patients and Providers
A report released this week from the Emergency Care Research Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies how to improve patient care, identifies 10 of the top patient safety concerns of 2022.
There was one topic this year that was identified by patients and physicians at all levels as most concerning: staffing shortages.
The second top concern identified in the report is the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on health care workers’ mental health.
In the report, ECRI cites a June 2021 survey that found 20% of physicians experienced burnout, with 6% saying they had experienced depression and 7% saying they had thoughts of suicide. Another survey from February 2021 found 25% of critical care nurses also experienced high levels of emotional exhaustion.
The other eight top safety concerns from the report include: bias and racism in addressing patient safety, vaccine coverage gaps and errors, cognitive biases and diagnostic error, non-ventilator health care–associated pneumonia, human factors in operationalizing telehealth, international supply chain disruptions, products subject to emergency use authorization, and telemetry monitoring.
Alexa can be reached at [email protected]
