Author: Mike

Clinician Burnout is a Patient Safety Issue

By Stephanie Garner (Chief Executive Officer, ARVAC Incorporated, a non-profit community action agency helping low-income families and reducing poverty across a nine-county region in the Arkansas River Valley.)

Safe care starts with people who can think clearly and communicate well. Yet healthcare work often brings sustained pressure and limited support. In 2022, 46% of health workers frequently felt burned out. Even more striking, affected physicians faced about twice the patient safety incident risk. Is the situation improving? Recent physician data suggests some progress. However, more than 2 in 5 physicians still reported symptoms in 2025. Clinician burnout can affect teamwork, retention, trust, care quality and patient safety. It is not only a workforce concern. It is also a patient safety issue that healthcare leaders cannot ignore.

Clinician Burnout - A Patient Safety Issue - Tired healthcare worker standing in a clinical room

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PPAHS and CUSPID Collaborate to Advance Pediatric Dental Patient Safety

Safe dental care for children is an important patient safety priority requiring evidence-based practices, appropriate monitoring, clinician education, and strong safety systems.

The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) and CUSPID Institute™ are collaborating on complementary efforts to strengthen patient safety in pediatric dental care. PPAHS will focus on pediatric dental sedation safety, while CUSPID will advance patient safety in dentistry more broadly through education, safety culture, teamwork, systems improvement, and incident learning.

Pediatric Dental Safety

 

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When Vaccine Guidance Conflicts, Children and Parents Deserve Clarity

PPAHS supports the American Academy of Pediatrics’ evidence-based recommendations for childhood immunization

Parents should be able to ask their child’s pediatrician a straightforward question—“What vaccines does my child need, and when?”—and receive a clear, evidence-based answer.

That has become more complicated in 2026.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued its own childhood and adolescent immunization schedule after deciding it could no longer endorse the federal CDC schedule. The AAP’s 2026 schedule recommends routine immunization against 18 diseases, while the federal schedule places some vaccines into high-risk or shared-clinical-decision-making categories.

This divergence creates an important question for clinicians and families:

When respected medical organizations provide different recommendations, how should parents and clinicians determine what is best for a child?

At the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), we believe the answer must begin with evidence, transparency, pediatric expertise, and the best interests of the child.

Vaccine safety

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Budget Allocation Decisions Directly Affect Patient Outcomes

By Selene Foster

For healthcare charities, every budget decision carries a practical consequence. A delayed investment in training, monitoring, or outreach can affect the quality and safety of patient care. Budget setting for charities is not just a financial exercise; it is a critical leadership function that shapes how effectively an organisation can deliver its core mission.

Budget Allocations

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Beyond Discharge: Why Safe Transitions of Care Are Essential to Reducing Hospital Readmissions

By Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

In his recent blog, “Supporting Patients During Transitions Between Levels of Care,” Alex Alonso discusses how transitions between healthcare settings are among the most vulnerable moments in a patient’s journey. Whether a patient is discharged from the hospital to home, transferred to a rehabilitation facility, or moves from one clinical team to another, every transition presents opportunities for communication failures, medication discrepancies, and gaps in follow-up care.

Unfortunately, these challenges remain a significant contributor to preventable hospital readmissions.

Beyond Discharge

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Supporting Patients During Transitions Between Levels of Care

By Alex Alonso (COO and Co-Founder, Bright Futures Treatment)

Research consistently shows that the period immediately following a change in treatment intensity is one of the most vulnerable moments in a patient’s recovery. A person who has just completed inpatient care and is moving into a partial hospitalization program, or stepping from PHP into an intensive outpatient program, faces a sudden reduction in structure — and, with it, a rise in risk. Supporting patients during transitions between levels of care is not a secondary concern; it is central to whether the gains made in treatment carry forward or erode. Understanding what makes these handoffs dangerous — and what makes them work — is essential for clinicians, families, and anyone involved in a patient’s recovery journey.

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When Stress Triggers Health Risks: Protecting Patients in Recovery

Stress triggers health risks in recovery by raising cravings, disrupting sleep, and straining your body. Learn how to spot early signs & protect your sobriety.

By Alex Alonso (COO and Co-Founder, Bright Futures Treatment Center)

Stress isn’t always a single big event. Sometimes it’s a string of small things – poor sleep, a tense conversation, money pressure, an unexpected schedule change. But when it happens during recovery? It can hit harder than you expect. It can raise blood pressure, disrupt sleep, weaken your immune response, and increase cravings, especially early on in the process. To help you stay on the safe side of your sobriety, we’ll break down how and when stress triggers health risks and how you can protect your health without trying to power through it.

A visibly upset person holding their head outdoors at sunset - visual representation of when stress triggers health risks during recover

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Advancing Women’s Heart Health Through Prevention, Equity, and Partnership

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death for women in the United States, yet it continues to be under-recognized, under-diagnosed, and under-treated—particularly among women who face economic, geographic, and systemic barriers to care. Despite decades of progress in cardiovascular medicine, far too many women still lack access to early screening, preventive services, and evidence-based education that could dramatically reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular events.

This gap in care is not due to a lack of science. We know that early identification of risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia—combined with counseling, follow-up, and community support—can save lives. The challenge has been ensuring that these proven strategies reach the women who need them most.

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Advancing Opioid Safety: New Evidence on Opioid-Induced Respiratory Depression

Opioids remain an essential component of pain management across surgical, procedural, and medical care. Yet alongside their benefits lies one of the most serious and potentially life-threatening risks: opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD). Despite decades of clinical use, OIRD continues to contribute to preventable patient harm across care settings.

A newly published peer-reviewed paper on OIRD, co-authored by a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and researchers — including Michael Wong, JD, Executive Director of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) — brings renewed attention to this critical patient safety challenge. The paper synthesizes current evidence on OIRD mechanisms, risk factors, and opportunities for improved prevention and response, reinforcing what many clinicians already recognize: respiratory depression is often predictable, frequently detectable, and too often recognized too late.

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Stop Making Quality Too Hard: Why My New Book is Your Quality Companion

By Amy Campbell, PhD, RN, CPHQ, LSSBB

After more than 17 years in healthcare quality, I have seen it all, projects that soared and  projects that stumbled. Some of my biggest “fails” turned out to be my first attempts at  learning, and those lessons shaped how I approach improvement today. Too often, we make  quality work harder than it needs to be. My passion has always been teaching, whether it is  guiding executives through complex systems or mentoring graduate nursing students who are  just beginning their quality journey. But I have struggled to find a resource that feels  approachable, something you could pick up quickly, enjoy, and return to whenever you need  guidance. 

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