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Each year, the ECRI Institute creates a list of top 10 patient safety concerns along with actionable recommendations for institutions to reduce these risks.

Some years, the list includes repeat offenders such as medication errors and concerns surrounding staffing. In the past few years, the list has reflected the reality of living during a global pandemic, with 2022’s top 10 concerns including clinician’s mental health, supply chain disruptions, and vaccine coverage gaps. This year’s list moves away from the pandemic somewhat, but still includes some fallout from COVID-19, with the number one concern reflecting a crisis among our youth: pediatric mental health.

According to the report:

“Concern for pediatric mental health was already high during the 2010s due to the growing use of social media, limited access to pediatric behavioral health providers, drug and alcohol use, gun violence, and socioeconomic impact, among other stressors. However, pediatric mental health issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 29% increase in children age 3 to 17 experiencing anxiety and a 27% increase in depression in 2020 compared with 2016.”

The report lists some recommendations to confront this issue, including securing leadership support and resources to evaluate the organization’s pediatric behavioral health services; implementing universal screening for depression, anxiety, abuse, substance use, and suicidal ideation for pediatric patients during every office and hospital visit; and forming a behavioral emergency response team, to name a few.

2023 Top 10 ECRI Patient Safety Concerns

  1. The pediatric mental health crisis
  2. Physical and verbal violence against healthcare staff
  3. Clinician needs in times of uncertainty surrounding maternal-fetal medicine
  4. Impact on clinicians expected to work outside their scope of practice and competencies
  5. Delayed identification and treatment of sepsis
  6. Consequences of poor care coordination for patients with complex medical conditions
  7. Risks of not looking beyond the “five rights” to achieve medication safety
  8. Medication errors resulting from inaccurate patient medication lists
  9. Accidental administration of neuromuscular blocking agents
  10. Preventable harm due to omitted care or treatment

The full executive report, which is available for download at the ECRI Institute website, details the rationale for each safety concern and offers practical recommendation for each item on the list.