Pulse
November/December 2011
Pulse
IOM Calls for Better Oversight, Accountability of Health Information Technology to Improve Patient Safety
To protect Americans from potential medical errors associated with the use of information technology in patient care, a new report by the Institute of Medicine calls for greater oversight by the public and private sectors. The report examines a broad range of health information technologies, including electronic health records, secure patient portals, and health information exchanges, but not software for medical devices.
The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should publish a plan within 12 months to minimize patient safety risks associated with health IT and report annually on the progress being made, the report says. The plan should include a schedule for working with the private sector to assess the impact of health IT on patient safety. However, if the secretary determines that progress toward improving safety is insufficient within a year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should exercise its authority to regulate these technologies. Concurrently, FDA should begin planning the framework needed for potential regulation so that the agency is ready to act if necessary.
“Just as the potential benefits of health IT are great, so are the possible harms to patient safety if these technologies are not being properly designed and used,” said Gail L. Warden, president emeritus of Henry Ford Health System and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “To protect patients, industry and government have a shared responsibility to ensure greater transparency, accountability, and reporting of health IT-related medical errors.”
The federal government is investing billions of dollars to encourage hospitals and healthcare providers to adopt health IT so that all Americans can benefit from the use of electronic health records by 2014, but demonstrated improvements in care and safety are not yet established, the report says. Some of these technologies have significantly improved the quality of healthcare and reduced medical errors. However, concerns about potential harm are emerging as healthcare providers increasingly rely on health IT to deliver care.
The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org.
ECRI Institute Identifies Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2012
Dangers from clinical alarms, radiation exposure, and medication errors from infusion devices top this year’s list.
Health technology offers countless benefits, but also some real risks. What are the most serious device-related risks, and how can hospitals address them? ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, answers which risks should be part of every hospital’s patient safety initiatives with the release of its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2012:
- Alarm hazards
- Exposure hazards from radiation therapy and computed tomography (CT)
- Medication administration errors using infusion pumps
- Cross-contamination from flexible endoscopes
- Inattention to change management for medical device connectivity
“With so many health technologies being used today, it can be difficult for hospitals to decide how to prioritize their safety efforts,” says James P. Keller, Jr., ECRI Institute’s Vice President, Health Technology Evaluation and Safety. “Our list can be used as a guide to help hospitals focus on the most important issues.”
The Top 10 Health Technology Hazards list is updated each year based upon information found in ECRI Institute’s medical device problem reporting databases, ECRI Institute PSO, and the judgment, analysis, and expertise of the organization’s multidisciplinary patient safety staff. Some hazards remain for several years if still deemed critical, and others are removed to make room for new more pressing safety concerns.
Each of the hazards in the 2012 report met one or more of the following criteria:
- It has resulted in injury or death
- It has occurred frequently
- It can affect a large number of individuals
- It has had a high profile or wide spread news coverage
Lastly, to make the list, there had to be clear steps that hospitals can take now to minimize the risks from each of the hazards.
This year, in addition to the published top 10 report, ECRI Institute has developed a web-based survey tool to help hospitals easily assess their facility’s risk in each of the ten areas. The new tool is available exclusively to members of ECRI Institute’s Health Devices System.
The Top 10 Health Technology Hazards List for 2012 is available for free download from ECRI Institute’s website at: www.ecri.org/2012_Top_10_Hazards.