Patient Safety Escape Room: A Team Simulation in Recognizing and Reporting Patient Safety Hazards

Medical errors harm patients and increase costs. Engaging early clinicians in patient safety (PS) is critical but challenging. We evaluated the impact of a Patient Safety Escape Room (PSER) simulation on intern engagement in PS. During the PSER, learner teams identified PS hazards in a simulated hospital room, revealing clues that allow escape via event report entry. One-hundred twenty interns from 14 training programs completed 2 PSERs each. Before the PSER, 5% reported experience entering an event report. Following the PSER, all interns had participated in entering an event report. Mean learner-reported comfort in identifying PS hazards improved significantly (6.3 +/- 1.57 to 8.0 +/- 1.2; P < 0.001). Individual safety hazards were identified by between 6% and 100% of teams. Mean observer-rated teamwork was lower than learner-rated teamwork (41.5 +/- 5.18 versus 45.92 +/- 3.87; P = 0.01). Subsequent resident reporting rates did not increase compared with historic controls. The PSER engaged early learners, however, translating improvements into the clinical environment remains challenging.

Automated summary

Medical errors harm patients and increase costs. We evaluated the impact of a Patient Safety Escape Room (PSER) simulation on intern engagement in patient safety. The results showed significant improvement in the identification of patient safety hazards but highlighted the need for improvement in teamwork.