ECRI Institute's "Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2022" report includes multiple safety challenges associated with infections.

ECRI states that it creates the annual list of patient safety concerns to help healthcare organizations identify and respond to imminent safety threats. With each of the top 10 patient safety concerns, ECRI provides guidance (i.e., "action recommendations") to help organizations address these areas of concern.

Coming in first on the 2022 list is "staffing shortages," including those associated with registered nurses, technicians and physicians. Staffing shortages increase the likelihood of staff burnout and exhaustion that can lead to care mistakes and associated infections.

In second is "COVID-19 effects on healthcare workers' mental health." This is another area contributing to burnout that can contribute to safety shortcomings and subsequent infections.

In third is "bias and racism in addressing patient safety." As ECRI notes, "Although patients from racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience an adverse event while in the hospital providers are significantly less likely to report harmful events for patients from minority groups than for white patients."

Sixth on the list is "nonventilator healthcare-associated pneumonia" (NVHAP). Pneumonia is the most common healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in the United States. About 1 in every 100 hospitalized patients experiences NVHAP. ECRI reports that NVHAP diagnoses in the United States make up nearly two-thirds of the cases, compared with about one-third associated with ventilators. Among the action recommendations included in the report: incorporating patient-care intervention bundles, conducting infection surveillance, and targeting performance improvement activities focusing on NVHAP risks.

Coming in eighth is "international supply chain disruptions." When organizations are forced to change processes and develop workarounds to account for a lack of equipment and delays in shipping, the likelihood of mistakes that can lead to an infection increase.

To download ECRI’s report, go here.

The top 10 patient safety concerns list of 2021 included improvised use of medical devices, peripheral vascular harm and infection risk from aerosol-generating procedures.