July / August 2007
NEW PRODUCTS & SERVICES
TRENDS
CAPS Releases Guide to Developing Consumer Champions
Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) has released a workshop and resource guide titled Building the Future for Patient Safety: Developing Consumer Champions. The guide, funded through the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is in the public domain and can be found online at http://patientsafety.org/page/102503/.
The guide describes the CAPS workshop process and methodology used for the World Health Organization's (WHO) Patients for Patient Safety initiative to develop future-oriented consumer champions as partners in patient safety work. The guide includes related tools that provide examples of materials to assist in launching a workshop experience for consumer champions.
"Historically, patients have had little opportunity to contribute their wisdom or perspective back to the healthcare system or voice their aspirations in the efforts to improve patient safety," said Susan E. Sheridan, MIM, MBA, co-founder and president of CAPS and lead of the WHO Patients for Patient Safety initiative. "However, there is a recent appreciation and respect for patient participation in the creation of a safer healthcare system acknowledging that patients are key and even necessary in identifying patient safety issues, advocating for change, and designing and implementing solutions."
"CAPS adapts and uses a methodology known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in this transformative work," said Martin J. Hatlie, JD, CAPS co-founder and chair of the CAPS Program Committee. "By shifting who talks to whom about what, the AI approach reconfigures the community working to improve safety with consumers and providers positioned as full partners in creating healthcare organizations that are truly trustworthy."
The guide is intended for two audiences. First, healthcare delivery or policymaking organizations interested in recruiting partner-oriented consumers and learning from their experiences by structuring a distinct type of workshop experience, and second, consumers who want to more effectively partner with healthcare to improve patient safety.
"Patients are an essential part of the healthcare team," said AHRQ director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD. "I hope that this new resource will help patients become better champions of their own healthcare and the care of their family and friends."
Source: Consumers Advancing Patient Safety
New Technology Prevents Medical Errors in the Delivery Room
Mothers-to-be who give birth at two Baltimore Hospitals can breathe a little easier — at least figuratively, if not on the delivery table — thanks to a sophisticated new software system designed to prevent medical errors and improve patient safety. The Intelligent Patient Record for Obstetrics (IPROB™), developed by E&C Medical Intelligence, is making childbirth safer — for both mother and baby — at more than 30 hospitals across the country, including MedStar Health System's Franklin Hospital and Harbor Hospital in Baltimore.
Used in more than 160,000 births nationwide, the IPROB system combines best practices and risk management tools to prevent clinical errors in real time and improve the quality of obstetrics care — traditionally the highest medical liability risk in healthcare. As a direct result of implementing IPROB, MedStar has reduced the risk allocation dollars for obstetrics malpractice by $2 million.
"The frequency of claims has gone down dramatically, and cost continues to go down dramatically," said Larry Smith, vice president of risk management services, MedStar Health. "A formal analysis is still underway, but it definitely has to do with better outcomes, fewer errors, better practice. We are convinced this system represents the future of obstetrics, and we are excited to be among those hospitals leading the way."
ÝWhat sets IPROB apart from simple electronic medical records is its ability to proactively support patient care decisions by doctors and nurses by offering prompts and reminders appropriate to specific clinical situations.
Source: E&C Medical Intelligence
Patient Health Card Enhances Information Transparency
In an effort to alleviate preventable medical errors and insurance fraud, Siemens Medical Solutions (www.usa.siemens.com/medical) announces the general availability of the CardOS Health 2.0 Patient Health Card Solution, a highly portable, secure storage and communication device that provides patient identification, electronic retrieval, storage, and display of critical medical and demographic data, and communication functions for healthcare information. The Siemens Patient Health Card Solution meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's requirements for Class I medical devices that include design, development, and manufacturing controls.
About the size of a credit card, Patient Health Cards are chip-embedded, photo identification cards that allow patients to be quickly and accurately identified and authenticated during registration, and provide instant access to key electronic medical record information, including insurance coverage and demographic information. Patients can easily provide the facility with their information by inserting a card into a reader and entering a private identification number to unlock the card. For patients who are unable to enter their number in an emergency setting, caregivers can override the system in order to access critical information.
The solution has been tested at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center and Elmhurst Hospital, which plan to deploy approximately 1.2 million Patient Health Cards.
Source: Siemens Medical Solutions
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