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Chart review is an important tool to identify patient hazards. Most advanced medical students perform poorly during chart review but can learn how to identify patient hazards context-independently. Many hospitals have implemented electronic health records, which enhance patient safety but also pose challenges. We investigated whether electronic charts impair advanced medical students' recognition of patient hazards compared with traditional paper charts. Fifth-year medical students were randomized into two equal groups. Both groups attended a lecture on patient hazards and a training session on handling electronic health records. One group reviewed an electronic chart with 12 standardized patient hazards and then reviewed another case in a paper chart; the other group reviewed the charts in reverse order. The two case scenarios (diabetes and gastrointestinal bleeding) were used as the first and second case equally often. After each case, the students were briefed about the patient safety hazards. In total, 78.5% of the students handed in their notes for evaluation. Two blinded raters independently assessed the number of patient hazards addressed in the students' notes. For the diabetes case, the students identified a median of 4.0 hazards [25%-75% quantiles (Q25-Q75): 2.0-5.5] in the electronic chart and 5.0 hazards (Q25-Q75: 3.0-6.75) in the paper chart (equivalence testing, p = 0.005). For the gastrointestinal bleeding case, the students identified a median of 5.0 hazards (Q25-Q75: 4.0-6.0) in the electronic chart and 5.0 hazards (Q25-Q75: 3.0-6.0) in the paper chart (equivalence testing, p < 0.001). We detected no improvement between the first case [median 5.0 (Q25-Q75: 3.0-6.0)] and second case [median, 5.0 (Q25-Q75: 3.0-6.0); p < 0.001, test for equivalence]. Electronic charts do not seem to facilitate advanced medical students' recognition of patient hazards during chart review and may impair expertise formation.

Background Workload and demands on hospital staff have been growing over recent years. To ensure patient and occupational safety, hospitals increasingly survey staff about perceived working conditions and safety culture. At the same time, routine data are used to manage resources and performance. This study aims to understand the relation between survey-derived measures of how staff perceive their work-related stress and strain and patient safety on the one hand, and routine data measures of workload and quality of care (patient safety) on the other. Methods We administered a written questionnaire to all physicians and nurses in the inpatient units at a German university hospital. The questionnaire was an amalgam of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) scale to assess patient-related burnout of and portions of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC). Indicators from administrative data used to assess workload and patient-related work-strain were: amount of overtime worked, work intensity recording of nurses, cost weight, occupancy rate and DRG-related length of stay. Quality of care was assessed using readmission rates and disease-related length of stay. Univariate associations were tested with Pearson correlations. Results Response rate were 37% (224) for physicians and 39% (351) for nurses. Physicians’ overtime correlated strongly with perceived quantitative demands (.706, 95% CI: 0.634 to 0.766), emotional demands (.765; 95% CI: 0.705 to 0.814), and perceived role conflicts (.655, 95% CI: 0.573 to 0.724). Nurses’ work-intensity measures were associated with decreasing physician job satisfaction and with less favorable perceptions of the appropriateness of staffing (-.527, 95% CI:-0.856 to 0.107). Both professional groups showed medium to strong associations between the morbidity measure (cost weight) and role conflicts; between occupancy rates and role clarity (-.482, 95% CI: -0.782 to -0.02) and predictability of work (-.62, 95% CI: -0.848 to -0.199); and between length of stay and internal team functioning (-.555, 95% CI: -0.818 to -0.101). Higher readmission rates were associated with lower perceived patient safety (-.476, 95% CI: -0.779 to 0.006), inadequate staffing (-.702, 95% CI: -0.884 to -0.334), and worse team functioning (-.520, 95% CI: -0.801 to -0.052). Shorter disease-related length of stay was associated with better teamwork within units (-.555, 95% CI: -0.818 to -0.101) and a lower risk of physician burnout (-.588, 95% CI: -0.846 to -0.108). Conclusion Perceptions of hospital personnel regarding sub-optimal workplace safety and teamwork issues correlated with worse patient outcome measures. Furthermore, objective measures of overtime work as well as objective measures of workload correlated clearly with subjective work-related stress and strain. This suggests that objective workload measures (such as overtime worked) could be used to indirectly monitor job-related psychosocial strain on employees and, thus, improve not only staff wellbeing but also patient outcomes. On the other hand, listening to their personnel could help hospitals to improve patient (and employee) safety.