Health IT & Quality: Health IT’s Glue
Health IT & Quality
Health IT’s Glue
With the march toward deployment of healthcare IT in full swing, concern mounts about obtaining the full value from the investment. Spending $19 billion on health IT tools does not guarantee patient safety, enhanced quality, improved access to care, or reduced cost. In fact, many studies over the past years have shown just the opposite.
Human Factors 101: Improve Reliability in Healthcare with Human Factors Engineering
Human Factors 101
Improve Reliability in Healthcare with Human Factors Engineering
Healthcare technology and training have advanced remarkably in the past 100 years, from the discovery of penicillin to the first heart transplant, but there is a downside to this progress. To quote Sir Cyril Chantler, former Dean of the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Medical and Dental Schools in London, “Medicine used to be simple, ineffective, and relatively safe. Now it is complex, effective and potentially dangerous.”
EMR Implementation: Building a Team of Informaticists
EMR Implementation
Building a Team of Informaticists
In “Clinical Informatics and the CMIO” (PSQH 2010, Jan./Feb.), I discussed the importance of clinical informatics in institutions achieving their EMR implementation goals. I talked about why you can’t “just take the paper order set and make it appear on the screen” and how you should brace yourself for organizational change when you start doing electronic order entry.
Editor’s Notebook: Scale
Editor’s Notebook
Scale
My email and Twitter accounts are full of news about Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW; March 7–13), which has been sponsored by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) since 2002. In an interview with Heather Comak of HealthLeaders Media, NPSF President Diane Pinakiewicz explains that the purpose of PSAW is “…to provide a week not just for heightened awareness about patient safety, but very specifically a focus on the role of the patient and consumer in the work.”
Documentation: The Clinical Integration Specialist
Documentation
The Clinical Integration Specialist: Improving Patient Care in the Energency Department
In an article posted to the Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare blog (Weygandt, 2009), we addressed a critical function for patient safety and quality: accurately communicating clinical information in real time by incorporating the clinical documentation specialist (CDS) as a key member of the clinical team.
ABQAURP News
ASQ Healthcare Division Newsletter