Technology & Quality – Continuity of Care Record: Foundation for Quality
Effective clinical decision-making relies upon easy access to accurate, up-to-date clinical information on patients. Although hospitals and other providers currently emphasize new information technologies such as computerized physician order entry and physician portals…
Public Policy – View from the Hill: Patient Safety and the 108th Congress
I remember one of my first boyhood visits to Washington, D.C., in the 1960s, with my grandfather, the late state Representative Lawrence H. Roberts (R-CT). On one such visit, Grandpa Roberts told me that when French architect Pierre L’Enfant…
Computerized Physician Order Entry: CPOE at a Community Hospital Online Charting Goes Live
Huntington Hospital, a 525-bed not-for-profit tertiary care community hospital, was established in Pasadena, California, in 1892; its mission is simply to excel at the delivery of healthcare to its community.
Technology & Quality: Playing Tag to Enhance Patient Safety
A recent television commercial for a computer company shows a scruffy-looking character in a trench coat walking through the aisles of a supermarket. As he travels down each row, he picks up one item and the next and sticks them in the pockets of his coat.
Q & A – Federal Health Architecture: An Interview with Kathleen Heuer
Kathleen Heuer is the deputy assistant secretary, Budget, Technology and Finance, at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She discussed the Federal Health Architecture at the Digital Healthcare Conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Technology Network in June 2004.
Six Sigma: Reducing Surgical Site Infections Through Six Sigma & Change Management
Hospital-acquired infections represent a significant patient safety concern, causing increased injury, mortality, and healthcare costs. In 2002, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a national quality improvement project aimed at reducing the occurrence of postoperative surgical site infections (SSIs).
Computerized Physician Order Entry – CPOE at a Community Hospital: First Steps
The crescendo of recommendations from regulatory, clinical, payer, and purchaser groups touting applications such as computerized physician order entry (CPOE) as solutions to unacceptable error rates is hard to ignore.
Information Systems: Web-Based Tools Aid Quality Improvement Projects
Clinicians naturally seek improvement and evaluate alternate ways to provide appropriate and optimal care for their patients. While many healthcare organizations have embraced TQM (total quality management), Six Sigma, PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act), and other data-driven methodologies…
Editor’s Notebook: Our First Issue
Welcome to the newest periodical in the dynamic world of patient safety: Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare (PSQH).Our goal is to provide “news, science, research,” and a forum for “opinion” to people from all quarters…
Focus Study: Osteoporosis – Screening & Treatment for the Elderly
Fractures resulting from minimal trauma result in significant morbidity and mortality in the elderly. These fragility fractures are related to underlying osteoporosis.