High Reliability: Memorial Hermann Health System’s IT Network
By Mitch Work, MPA, FHIMSS, and Chuck Appleby
When your vision is to become a “high reliability” organization in healthcare like those in the nuclear power and commercial airline industries, you’ve set the bar at a height no health system has yet reached. Add a burgeoning uninsured population with diminishing reimbursement in one of the most competitive health marketplaces in the nation and, well, “Houston, we may have a problem.” Memorial Hermann Health System—a Houston-based integrated delivery system with 12 hospitals and more than 20,000 employees serving a 115-mile-diameter region centered on the metro area—has not only set such a bar, its exemplary record in patient safety and clinical quality makes it a good bet to reach it.
ABQAURP News
New Issue Features Interoperability, HENs, and Nurse Leadership
In PSQH, we attempt to represent the diversity of disciplines, tools, and knowledge that contribute to improving safety and quality, and the new issue is a good example of that approach.
Cox Medical Center Branson Uses T-System’s Care Continuity to Reduce Readmissions
Cox Medical Center Branson completed activation of T-System’s PerformNext Care Continuity web-based solution in its hospital and provider clinics to facilitate patient transitions and improve communication and access to clinical data. The facility has set a goal to reduce avoidable readmissions by 20 percent with the primary intention to improve their patients’ safety, satisfaction, experience and outcomes.
B. Braun Smart Infusion Pump Technology Advances Patient Safety
In an effort to provide the best patient care possible, Western Maryland Health System (WMHS) recently announced its successful integration of B. Braun Medical Inc.’s (B.Braun) innovative Outlook 400ES Safety Infusion System.
Awarepoint Launches New Bed & Bay Sensor
Awarepoint Corporation, the largest real-time location system (RTLS) corporation dedicated exclusively to healthcare, announces the launch of its new Bed and Bay Sensor that enables precise tracking of mobile equipment and patient and caregiver interactions in locations with tight-bed spacing, such as the emergency department (ED) and pre- and post-anesthesia care.
MACRMI Launches Medical Liability Website for Massachusetts Patients and Providers
The Massachusetts Alliance for Communication and Resolution following Medical Injury (MACRMI), an organization formed in 2012 and dedicated to the prompt resolution of medical liability arising from injuries to patients, has announced the launch of its website for Massachusetts patients and providers at www.macrmi.org.
CRICO Challenges EMR Complacency
CRICO, the patient safety and medical professional liability company serving the Harvard medical community, has produced a video that puts forth a future vision of how Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) might be embedded into the physician workflow in a manner that would improve health care delivery.
New AHRQ Resource Can Help Prevent Patient Falls in Hospitals
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has a new online toolkit, “Preventing Falls in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care,” that focuses on reducing falls that occur during a patient’s hospital stay.
ECRI Institute PSO Uncovers HIT-related Events in Deep Dive Analysis
The federal government is spending about $19 billion to encourage hospitals, physician practices, and other healthcare organizations to invest in their health information technology (HIT) infrastructure with the goal of improving patient safety and quality through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.