Physician Practices: Methods for EMR Success
Deciding to adopt an electronic medical record (EMR) is one of the most important decisions made by any practice. The transition to an EMR from a paper system can be challenging because it changes the way everyone works.
View from the Hill: What Does the New Patient Safety Law Mean?
Usually, summer is a time for folks in Washington, D.C., to flee town and enjoy cool weather outside the Capitol Beltway. This summer has been anything but usual.
Quality Improvement: Financial Incentives – An Indispensable Element for Quality Improvement
Walter McClure, one of the nation’s most astute health policy analysts, is rightfully recognized as one of the principal architects of strategies to harness market forces as an instrument for healthcare system reform (Business Week, 1982; Iglehart, 1988).
Ethics Toolbox: Science, Innovation, and Objectivity
The healthcare system in the United States is in desperate need of disruptive innovation. Encouraged by our culture of “new, bigger, quicker, better,” technology innovates upward to create specialized products and services.
Patient Safety in England and Wales: Developing Solutions to Promote Safer Practice
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is a national body (part of the National Health Service [NHS]) in England, established in 2001 to promote patient safety.
Editor’s Notebook: Stories to Share
Are you a patient safety officer? Are you engaged in a project that is particularly exciting? Have you solved a difficult problem recently? Is your work posing challenges you never thought you’d face? Have you thought about seeing your ideas in print?
Barcoding and RFID: Labeling and Tracking Preventing Errors in the Lab
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 7 billion tests are run each year in medical laboratories throughout the United States, contributing to more than 70% of all medical decisions (Boone, 2003).
Barcoding and RFID: Intelligent Location
As the buzz around the potential for radio frequency identification (RFID) in healthcare increases, so do the questions related to its practicality and payback. Answers vary because RFID represents an array of technologies, each with its own requirements and value for healthcare.
Barcoding and RFID: Automatic Identification
Two automatic identification technologies, neither “new” in the sense of being recent developments, are vying for acceptance in the healthcare field.
Barcoding and RFID: Barcoding to Enhance Patient Safety
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) defines a medication error as “…any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use…