Performance Health Partners
Patient safety issues are continuously evolving, with new challenges emerging alongside technological advances and societal shifts. In its annual report, Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) have identified the ten most critical patient safety issues for 2025. This report highlights the need for proactive approaches to mitigate risks and enhance patient outcomes across the healthcare spectrum.
Today, as healthcare advances at lighting speed, we’re experiencing challenges that might have seemed like something out of a sci-fi novel just a few decades ago—artificial intelligence in clinical settings, increasingly common cyberattacks on health data, and the rampant spread of medical misinformation across social media.
At the same time, we’re becoming increasingly aware of growing health disparities, and there’s a rising movement amplifying the voices of those who’ve been “medically gaslit.”
Yet, somehow, we’re also still tackling issues that healthcare organizations have wrestled with for decades, like missed diagnoses and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In this new era of patient safety, it’s clear we must stay vigilant, embrace innovative and adaptable strategies, and commit to fostering a culture of safety. These practices are vital to ensure the well-being of patients in our increasingly digital, complex, and interconnected world.
Let’s start by exploring ECRI’s report outlining the top patient safety issues for this year.
1. Risks of Dismissing Patient, Family, and Caregiver Concerns
In increasingly fast-paced and high-pressure healthcare settings, providers are managing a growing number of complex cases, often juggling multiple tech solutions, with very limited time for each patient. This crunch can lead to a system where empathetic, patient-centered care takes a back seat, leaving healthcare professionals struggling to fully engage with their patients.
In fact, a 2023 survey found that over 94% of participants felt their concerns were overlooked or outright dismissed by their doctors at times.
The dismissal of patient, family, and caregiver concerns can lead to critical oversight in care provision, often labeled as “medical gaslighting.” This issue can prevent accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment, particularly affecting marginalized communities who may already face significant barriers to healthcare.
Action recommendations: Healthcare providers must prioritize empathetic, respectful communication and integrate patient and caregiver insights into the diagnostic and treatment processes.
2. Insufficient Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more integrated into healthcare systems, its governance remains underdeveloped. In fact, a 2023 survey of 31 hospital executives found that only 16% reported that their organization had a system-wide governance policy for AI usage and data access.
Without comprehensive oversight, AI systems risk perpetuating biases or compromising patient privacy. Further, medical errors generated by AI could compromise patient safety and result in misdiagnoses or inappropriate treatment decisions, which can cause injury or death. Staff may also have difficulty determining when events are attributable to AI, making such patient safety issues harder to track.
Action Recommendations: Healthcare organizations must develop and enforce robust governance frameworks that ensure AI technologies are used ethically, transparently, and effectively, with regular audits and updates to policies as AI evolves.
3. The Wide Availability and Viral Spread of Medical Misinformation: Empowering Patients through Health Literacy
The proliferation of medical misinformation—health information that’s false, inaccurate, or misleading, based on current available evidence—particularly through social media, poses significant risks to public health.
Misinformation is a growing patient safety issue, considering it’s dispersed further and faster than before; false information is 70% more likely than the truth to be shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) and will reach people six times faster.
Action recommendations: Misinformation can lead to harmful health behaviors and mistrust in medical professionals. Healthcare providers should therefore work to improve health literacy, helping patients critically evaluate the information they encounter and understand reliable sources.
4. Medical Error and Delay in Care Resulting from Cybersecurity Breaches
In a survey of healthcare cybersecurity professionals, 88% reported that their organizations experienced cyberattacks in the past year, with an average of 40 attacks per organization.
With the average cost of a healthcare breach being $9.77 million in the United States, this patient safety issue is perhaps among the most costly of them all.
Cybersecurity breaches in healthcare can lead to critical delays in care delivery and compromise sensitive patient information. Patients may also experience longer lengths of stay, more complications from medical procedures, more transfers, and higher mortality rates.
Action recommendations: Institutions must invest in advanced cybersecurity measures, conduct regular vulnerability assessments, and train staff to recognize and respond to cyber threats. Effective incident response plans and continuous monitoring can mitigate the impact of potential breaches.
5. Unique Healthcare Challenges in Caring for Veterans
Veterans often encounter specific health issues related to their military service, requiring specialized care approaches. In care settings in which providers aren’t properly trained to assess and treat these issues, veterans are at risk for potential missed diagnoses and inadequate care.
Action recommendations: Healthcare systems need to tailor their services to address these unique challenges, including mental health, physical injuries, and chemical exposures, ensuring that veterans receive comprehensive, culturally competent care.
6. The Growing Threat of Substandard and Falsified Drugs
Substandard and falsified (SF) drugs—counterfeit or fake drugs made to resemble genuine pharmaceutical manufacturers’ medications—have become an progressively lucrative business worldwide, estimated to be worth as much as $431 billion a year.
Medications are increasingly being purchased from unregulated online marketplaces posing as legitimate pharmacies.
Recent studies have found that 96% of websites selling prescription drugs are doing so illegally and endangering patient health, but many of these sites continue to operate without any consequences because registries and registrars often refuse to act.
SF drugs are often adulterated with potentially lethal ingredients, including fentaNYL, fueling the epidemic of overdose deaths in the United States. Even when not contaminated with dangerous material, counterfeit drugs often lack the active ingredients to be effective, making them a threat to all.
Action recommendations: Strengthening regulatory frameworks, enhancing supply chain security, and raising public awareness are essential steps to combat this issue. Healthcare providers should ensure the authenticity of medications and advocate for stricter enforcement of drug safety regulations.
7. Diagnostic Error: The Big Three—Cancers, Major Vascular Events, and Infections
Diagnostic errors involving critical conditions such as cancers, major vascular events, and infections can be life-threatening, making them an important patient safety issue and a major source of preventable harm.
Diagnostic errors result from a wide array of system factors, from cognitive errors and clinical assessment to breakdowns in the diagnostic process.
Action recommendations: Enhancing diagnostic processes through better training, support systems, and technology can reduce these errors. Implementing second-opinion protocols and multidisciplinary diagnostic teams can also improve accuracy.
8. Persistence of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Long-Term Care Facilities
Despite improvements in infection control practices, HAIs remain prevalent in long-term care settings.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every day, 1 in 43 nursing home residents contracts an HAI.
Action recommendations: Healthcare organizations must adopt stricter infection control protocols, regular staff training, and adequate staffing levels to manage and prevent outbreaks effectively.
9. Inadequate Communication and Coordination during Discharge
One of the most common causes of medical errors is communication failure, and a majority (67%) of these failures occur during handoffs, including discharge.
When poorly managed, care transitions can lead to:
- Adverse events
- Worsened physical conditions
- Increased emotional distress
- Poorer health outcomes
- Readmissions
- Increased healthcare costs
Action recommendations: Healthcare providers should implement standardized discharge processes that include clear, understandable patient instructions and follow-up care coordination. Further, engaging patients and their families in the discharge planning process has been shown to result in reduced hospital readmissions.
10. Deteriorating Community Pharmacy Working Conditions Contribute to Medication Errors and Compromise Patient and Staff Safety
Community pharmacists have long dealt with challenging work conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deeper systemic flaws, causing work conditions to deteriorate further. Today, these conditions have become dangerously overwhelming, putting both patient safety and staff well-being at significant risk.
With increasing requests for vaccinations and point-of-care testing, and worsening staffing issues, the pharmacist is often left rushing to administer vaccines, and verify and dispense prescriptions. Unsurprisingly, these declining working conditions in community pharmacies can lead to increased medication errors and affect staff morale and safety.
Action recommendations: It is vital to address these issues by improving work environments, ensuring adequate staffing, and providing ongoing training and support for pharmacy staff.
Final Thoughts
The “Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2025” underscores the importance of a strategic, proactive approach to addressing emerging and enduring patient safety issues in healthcare. By focusing on these key areas, healthcare organizations can significantly improve patient safety and outcomes, and uphold the highest standards of care in an ever-advancing healthcare landscape.
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