Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

9 PATIENT SAFETY & OUTCOMES 2nd patient to receive pig heart transplant dies By Mackenzie Bean T he world's second patient transplanted with a genetically modified pig heart has died, the University of Maryland School of Medicine said Oct. 31. Lawrence Faucette underwent the experimental procedure Sept. 20 at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Mr. Faucette, who had terminal heart failure, lived for nearly six weeks aer the surgery. He died Oct. 30 aer the transplanted heart began showing signs of rejection. Surgeons at University of Maryland Medical Center performed the world's first pig heart transplant on another patient, David Bennett, in January 2022. Mr. Bennett died in early March aer his body rejected the donor heart. "We cannot express enough gratitude to Mr. Faucette and his family for enabling us to continue to make significant advancements towards making xenotransplants a reality," Muhammad Mohiuddin, MD, scientific/program director of the medical school's cardiac xenotransplantation program, said in a news release. "As with the first patient, David Bennett, Sr., we intend to conduct an extensive analysis to identify factors that can be prevented in future transplants; this will allow us to continue to move forward and educate our colleagues in the field on our experience." n The value of the second opinion By Erica Carbajal E arlier in 2023, researchers published results from the first study to quantify the burden of misdiagnoses in the U.S., which found nearly 800,000 people are permanently disabled or die from diagnostic errors. A separate study estimated 370,000 patients may suffer serious harm as a result of misdiagnosis in U.S. emergency departments every year. Such findings underscore the importance of second opinions, which is oftentimes key to ensuring patients get the right treatment, experts told NerdWallet for a report published Nov. 1 in The Mercury News. "Second opinions are probably the single fastest way to address diagnostic errors today," said David Newman- Toker, MD, PhD, director of the center for diagnostic excellence at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. Beyond confirming the correct diagnosis, experts say second opinions should also focus on making sure patients are getting the best possible treatment for their specific stage of life. "How can you incorporate quality-of-life concerns and still get the result you want?" said Caitlin Donovan, senior director at the Patient Advocate Foundation, in the report. "Physicians may differ on that." n Ransomware attacks might increase in-hospital mortality by up to 35% By Mariah Taylor A recent working paper found that during ransomware attacks, in-hospital patient mortality increased by 20% to 35%, NPR reported Oct. 20. The research analyzed Medicare data and is currently limited to patients 65 and older who are in the hospitals during a ransomware attack. Cyberattacks can disrupt care for weeks and cost hospitals millions. Attacks have more than doubled between 2016 and 2021, exposing tens of millions of patients' health information and forcing facilities to divert and delay care. Within the first week of an attack, hospital volume falls by 17% to 25%, the research found. The findings confirm hospitals' worst fears, NPR said, but they might push the industry and government to make substantial changes. Some advocates are asking policymakers to set minimum cybersecurity requirements for hospitals and offer financial assistance to smaller or more rural facilities that may not have the resources to comply. n e safety II framework makes the following shis: • Adopt a mindset that clinicians are essential to system safeguards and that their time and talent need to be protected from tasks that create a burden without adding value to patient care. • Invest in standardization of predictable work to reduce cognitive load and decision fatigue. • Collaborate with stakeholders to design reasonable safeguards that protect humans from unnecessary errors. • Create ways for clinicians to provide feedback so decision- makers have data to affect patient care. "Safety will be achieved by systems that are designed to reduce the non-value-added work, to allow more time for relationship building, and to facilitate customization of care to the unique needs of individual patients and their circumstances," the authors wrote. n

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