Dismissing patient, family and caregiver concerns tops ECRI’s 2025 list of the most significant threats to patient safety. The global healthcare safety nonprofit organization says time and resource constraints make it increasingly difficult for some clinicians to provide empathetic care that addresses patient and caregiver concerns, potentially leading to missed and delayed diagnoses.
More than 94% of patients reported instances when their symptoms were ignored or dismissed by a doctor, according to a survey from HealthCentral. ECRI says when concerns go unaddressed, patients and caregivers feel like they’re experiencing “medical gaslighting,” which the American Journal of Medicine defines as “an act that invalidates a patient’s genuine clinical concern without proper medical evaluation.” Unlike the popular usage of the term “gaslighting,” medical gaslighting is not considered intentional, and clinicians are often unaware they exhibit the behavior, ECRI experts say.
ECRI says medical gaslighting can happen when clinicians are rushed for time, have biases that reflexively attribute symptoms to issues like mental illness, age or weight, or make cognitive errors like interpreting new information in a way that confirms a previous diagnosis. This can lead to a missed diagnosis, delayed treatment and decreased trust between patients and their healthcare providers.
The 2025 concerns in ranked order are:
- Dismissing patient, family and caregiver concerns
- Insufficient governance of artificial intelligence
- Spread of medical misinformation
- Cybersecurity breaches
- Caring for veterans in non-military health settings
- Substandard and falsified drugs
- Diagnostic error in cancers, vascular events and infections
- Healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities
- Inadequate coordination during patient discharge
- Deteriorating working conditions in community pharmacies
ECRI’s 2025 report includes recommendations for healthcare organizations to create organizational resilience to navigate the identified threats and strive for total systems safety.
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