Safety for All: Integrated Design for Inpatient Units
By James M. Hunt, AIA, NCARB: and David M. Sine, DrBE, CSP, ARM, CPHRM The concept of integrated healthcare – treating the whole person and all of his or her diagnoses, including mental illness, in one location with one team of clinicians—has gained considerable traction in the literature (U.S. Department of Health & Human … Continued
To Do No Harm, Rethink How to Measure Hand Hygiene
By Paul Alper, BA Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means, “First, do no harm.” It is a precept taught to healthcare students around the world and paraphrased in the Hippocratic Oath. Unfortunately, a vast amount of avoidable harm still takes place in healthcare settings worldwide. The good news is that a new … Continued
Community Circles: Transforming Care in Downeast Maine
By Holly Gartmayer-DeYoung, BSN, MBA Each morning, Eastport, Maine, is the first city in the United States to see the sunrise. Among the contiguous United States, Eastport has the deepest natural harbor (Fallows, 2014), one that buzzed with industry and prosperity during the 19th century and well into the 20th. The city’s fortunes have largely … Continued
Drug Diversion: Partially Filled Vials and Syringes in Sharps Containers Are Key Source of Problems
Partially Filled Vials and Syringes in Sharps Containers Are Key Sources of Problems By the Institute for Safe Medication Practices A 36-year-old hospital care aide (nursing assistant) who had been diverting discarded drugs died after self-administering what she likely thought might be an opioid but was actually a neuromuscular blocking agent (Fayerman, 2016a-c). The aide … Continued
Transforming the Continuum of Care With Technology
By Sally Graver Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FAAN, has been a leader in health information technology (IT) for more than 25 years. She is currently chief nursing officer (CNO) for IBM Global Healthcare. Prior to joining IBM, Murphy served as CNO and deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the Office of the … Continued
What Clinical Decision Support Can Offer
By Nancy Zimmerman, RN, BSN Advanced clinical decision support (CDS) systems are playing an increasingly important role in promoting quality and safety in patient care, especially in diagnostic assistance. While arriving at a correct diagnosis will always be a mixture of art and science, with physicians ultimately responsible for all clinical decisions, CDS systems support … Continued
Health IT & Quality: Why Things Matter
By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH Compared to automobiles made just a few years ago, new ones provide an amazing driving experience. Expanding beyond the CD changer and iPod® dongle, automobiles now integrate our smartphones and use voice recognition technology, allowing drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel. In addition to this … Continued
Using Automated Surveillance to Improve Diagnosis
By Tom Scaletta, MD, CPPS Every day, healthcare becomes more complex, and with that complexity comes a growing need to focus on reducing diagnostic errors. A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare (Balogh, Miller, & Ball, 2015), estimates that 5% of adults seeking outpatient care experience a diagnostic error, while one … Continued
Editor’s Notebook: Empowering Data
I spent the weeks leading up to this year’s HIMSS conference working with “e-Patient” Dave deBronkart on our cover story, “Beyond Empowerment: Patients, Paradigms, and Social Movements.” I was still thinking about empowerment as I traveled to Las Vegas in late February to join more than 41,000 people at HIMSS, by far the largest annual health IT conference. In recent years, coming off the euphoria of federally funded incentive payments for electronic health records (EHR), the mood at HIMSS has been subdued by meaningful use requirements and economic challenges. But even though I was admittedly still under Dave’s uplifting influence, I sensed a much more positive, proactive, and—yes—empowered energy at HIMSS16.
Beyond Empowerment: Patients, Paradigms, and Social Movements
A conversation with “e-Patient Dave” deBronkart
By Susan Carr
Dave deBronkart, known on the Internet as e-Patient Dave, is one of the world’s best-known evangelists for the patient engagement movement. A 2007 survivor of stage IV kidney cancer, he discovered the movement in 2008 and started blogging about it as a hobby. In 2009, he moved his electronic hospital data to a personal health record, which triggered a series of events that landed him on the front page of The Boston Globe (Wangsness, 2009). Invitations to attend policy meetings in Washington and give speeches followed. An accomplished speaker in his professional life, he has now participated in 450 healthcare events in 15 countries. His 2011 TED Talk has been seen by almost a half million viewers online.
deBronkart is a child of the Sixties, which leads him to see the e-patient movement as a social revolution, parallel to civil rights and feminism. And as an MIT graduate, he also sees it as the natural evolution of a scientific field. The following is based on a conversation he had recently with Susan Carr, editor of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare.