"Blog" is a contraction of Web log. These are online forums where people can post messages, where a topic of interest can be posted and discussed by anyone for any reason. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp), "8 million American adults say they have created blogs; blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users."

A patient safety blog can allow healthcare professionals to interact with each other, discuss important topics of interest as they relate to patient safety and quality improvement, share ideas, challenge current methodologies, adopt new methodologies and stay current with trends in patient safety and quality, research and practice.

Why read or post to a patient safety blog?
A patient safety blog allows hospitalists, patient safety officers, nurses, doctors, healthcare executives, consultants (patient safety professionals) and/or anyone interested in patient safety to have their say with anonymity. Disclosure of personal contact information by the author is optional and determined by the author.

For example, a nurse can share an idea for patient monitoring with CEOs, colleagues and doctors, while remaining on the same socio-political level with them by remaining anonymous. Further, a blogger can challenge the opinions expressed by another blogger without fear of reprimand or reprisal. A Chief of Staff can express his opinion and receive either agreement or challenge from anyone else, regardless of their rank or stature. This can be beneficial to both the author and the reader in sharing opinions, ideas and interacting in progressive discussion.

Blogging has been shown to bring colleagues from across the world together. Networking with other patient safety professionals by communicating through a blog can build a solid network of expert opinions from many perspectives. Collection, collaboration and sharing ideas about healthcare IT adoption, improving patient satisfaction, tracking outcomes, remote patient monitoring, improved policies and procedures, new programs that improve quality and satisfaction, and emerging clinical research can all be shared, discussed and refined by using a powerful communications forum such as a blog for patient safety.

A patient safety and quality blog will keep you up to date with trends in the field, in research and issues in the media (such as FDA drug rulings, new legislation relating to patient care, new technologies for patient safety etc.). Now you will not only have the opportunity to find a forum for all of this information, but you will have the opportunity to discuss your own views on these matters, and have your ideas discussed with others in your field.

Get to know what others think, share what you think, learn new ways of doing things and do it all much faster than ever before.

Why use the Vocantas Patient Safety
and Quality Blog?
Vocantas are telephony and speech experts, providing patient safety and monitoring solutions to healthcare providers. We are highly focused on using telephone follow-up and monitoring systems as a method of detecting post-discharge adverse events, measuring patient satisfaction, and delivering important health information to your patients via telephone.

To this end, it is critical to Vocantas that we understand what is "going on" in patient safety and quality improvement in the field and in research in order to ensure our solutions are relevant and help solve challenges and difficulties for our clients.

Our clients are hospitals, universities, clinics, health systems, and insurers who are concerned with improving patient care and quality by bridging the communications gap between patient and provider. More specifically, our clients are you — Patient Safety Officers, Quality Managers, Hospitalists, Nurses, Doctors, Chiefs of Staff, CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and other healthcare decision-makers and policy-makers.

Vocantas is in contact with clinical researchers for patient safety, patient safety officers, hospitalists and healthcare decision-makers every day. We believe this collection of expertise if shared with each other, can be a valuable resource for all. Further, it is our goal to strengthen our position as industry leaders in patient safety and quality speech and telephony solutions. Providing useful and informative information to our clients is critical to becoming a recognized and trusted authority in our field.

At Vocantas, our primary goal is to assist healthcare providers in improving quality and patient safety, patient satisfaction and improve outcomes through integration of speech and telephony technology. The Vocantas Patient Safety and Quality blog has been created for that very purpose. Vocantas believes that the sharing of ideas and trends with our patient safety colleagues is of great benefit to all and furthers our goals in helping you improve safety and quality for your patients.