Report: Top patient safety concerns in 2026

A recent report from ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) highlights the top patient safety challenges impacting the healthcare industry in 2026. Many of these challenges emphasize the risk of preventable harm, and they all reveal how vulnerabilities in technology, staffing, culture, and public health intersect to expand patient risk, according to the report.

After considering criteria such as severity, frequency, breadth, insidiousness, and profile, ECRI and ISMP identified the following as the top 10 patient safety concerns for this year:

1. Navigating the artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic dilemma
2. Reduced access to rural healthcare, increasing health risks and disparities
3. Increasing rates of preventable acute diseases in communities and healthcare settings
4. Effects of federal funding cuts on healthcare operations and patient safety
5. Lack of recognition and reporting of harm events
6. Structural and systemic barriers inhibiting equitable pain management for women
7. Persistent workforce shortages burdening staff and restricting access to care
8. Impact on system improvement when a culture of blame hinders learning
9. Emergency department boarding contributing to worse patient outcomes
10. Persistent gaps in manufacturer packaging and labeling design continuing to undermine medication safety efforts

Collectively, these concerns illustrate that patient safety initiatives should extend beyond preventing isolated errors, according to the report.

For each of the 10 concerns, ECRI and ISMP included action recommendations for improving governance, patient engagement, staff education, and more. However, they acknowledged that no facility is able to effectively address all of these concerns at once. Instead, hospital patient safety leaders can assess risk scores and perform a gap analysis to compare current practices with their recommendations.