Advancing Evidence-Based Patient Safety: ECRI’s Contributions to Making Healthcare Safer IV
The ECRI-Penn Medicine Evidence-Based Practice Center (EPC) played a pivotal role in shaping the newest edition of Making Healthcare Safer, a landmark, multi-year effort to evaluate patient safety practices. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Making Healthcare Safer IV report series relies on rigorous, expert-driven reviews—including rapid evidence assessments led by ECRI—to inform clinicians, health system leaders, and policymakers about which safety practices merit broader adoption and where critical evidence gaps remain.
For Making Healthcare Safer IV, the team conducted horizon scanning to identify emerging trends and needs in the field of patient safety, helping the Technical Expert Panel narrow an initial list of 326 potential patient safety practices down to 26 priority topics for evaluation. ECRI conducted seven rapid evidence reviews released as part of the series, including an analysis of interventions for nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia, which was highlighted as a Top 10 Patient Safety Concern by ECRI’s Patient Safety Organization.
Making Healthcare Safer reports by ECRI:
- Reducing Adverse Events Related to Anticoagulants
- Engaging Family Caregivers with Structured Communication for Safe Care Transitions
- Active Surveillance of Culturing of Clostridioides difficile and Multidrug-Resistant Organisms
- Supply Chain Disruption Monitoring Programs
- Interventions to Prevent Nonventilator Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia
- Examining the Impact of Implementing High-Reliability Organization Principles on Patient Safety Outcomes
- Making Healthcare Safer VI: Summary of Findings on Patient Safety Practices
“ECRI has been honored to support the Making Healthcare Safer initiative,” says ECRI’s Director of Clinical Evidence Evan LeGault. “This effort brings together rigorous evidence analysis and expert perspectives to help healthcare leaders navigate a challenging patient safety landscape, prioritize high-impact interventions, and advance safer, more reliable care for patients.”