Leveraging IT to Improve Patient Safety

Abstract:

Medical errors and issues of patient safety are hardly new phenomena. Even during the dawn of medicine, Hippocrates counselled new physicians “to above all else do no harm.” In the United States, efforts to improve the quality of healthcare can be seen in almost every decade of the last century. In the early 1900s, Dr. Ernest Codman failed in his efforts to get fellow surgeons to look at the outcomes of their cases. In the 1970s, there was an outcry that the military allowed an almost blind surgeon to continue to practice and even transferred him to the prestigious Walter Reed Hospital. More recently, two reports by the Institute of Medicine caught the attention of the media, the American public, and the healthcare industry. To Err Is Human highlights the need to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety, and Crossing The Quality Chasm calls for a new health system to provide quality care for the 21st century.

 

MissingLinkText

 

 

MissingLinkText

• References

• 1 Romano M.. Woe is us: Stinging reports criticize health industry. Mod Healthc 2001; May 14 31 (20) 4-5 12.
• 2 Kaiser Family Foundation. National Survey on Americans as Health Care Consumers: An Update on the Role of Quality Information. December. 2000 http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/kffhigh00.htm
• 3 American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists. ASHP Patient Concerns National Survey Research Report. Bethesda, MD; September. 1999
• 4 Blendon RJ., Schoen C., Donelan K., Osborn R., DesRoches CM., Scoles K.. et al. Physicians’ views on quality of care: a five-country comparison. Health Aff (Millwood) 2001; May-Jun 20 (03) 233-43.
• 5 www.ihi.org/pursuingperfection Accessed 7/26/02
• 6 Dubois RW., Brook RH.. Preventable deaths: Who, how often, and why?. Ann Intern Med 1988; Oct 1 109 (07) 582-9.
• 7 Kohn LT., Corrigan JM., Donaldson MS.. editors To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Institute of Medicine. Washington DC: National Academy Press; 1999
• 8 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Reducing and Preventing Adverse Drug Events to Decrease Hospital Costs. 2001 http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/aderia/aderia.htm Accessed 7/25/02
• 9 Phillips DP., Cristenfeld N., Glynn LM.. Increase in US medication error death rates between 1983 and 1993. Lancet 1998; 351 9103 643-4.
• 10 Bruskin Goldring Research. February 1999. A Study of Medication Errors and Specimen Collection Errors. Commissioned by Becton-Dickinson and College of American Pathologists. http://www.bd.com/bdid/whats_new/pdfs/ whitepaper.pdf Accessed 7/25/02
• 11 Krizek TJ.. Surgical error: Ethical issues of adverse events. Arch Surg 2000; Nov 135 (11) 1359-66.
• 12 Committee on Quality Health Care in America. Institute of Medicine. Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington DC: National Academy Press; 2001
• 13 www.fda.gov/cder/index.html Accessed 8/6/02
• 14 Chassin M.. Is health care ready for six sigma quality?. Milbank Q 1998; 76 (04) 565-91. 510.
• 15 www.jcaho.org Accessed 7/26/02
• 16 President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. Transforming Health Care Though Information Technology. Washington DC: PITAC; February; 2001
• 17 Institute of Medicine. The Computer- Based Patient Record: An Essential Technology for Health Care, Revised Edition. 1997
• 18 Kuperman GJ., Boyle D., Jha A., Rittenberg E., Ma’Luf N., Tanasijevic MJ.. et al. How promptly are inpatients treated for critical laboratory results?. J Am Med Inform Assoc 1998; Jan-Feb 5 (01) 112-9.
• 19 Kuperman G., Sittig DF., Shabot M., Teich J.. Clinical decision support for hospital and criticalcare. Journal of Healthcare Information Management 1999; 13 (04) 81-96.
• 20 Gillespie G.. IT paints a different picture. Health Data Management 2001; Jun 9 (06) 26-8. www.healthdatamanagement.com.