Q & A

State of the Art in Diagnostic Clinical Decision Support

By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, FHIMSS

With the recent passage of the American
Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the release of the
Obama administration’s 10-year budget plan, health information
technology (IT) will play a key role in any efforts to reform
healthcare. The ARRA is investing more than $19 billion over 5 years on
health IT, specifically electronic medical records, through economic
incentives presented to physicians, clinics, and hospitals.

Data Trends

High-Alert Medications: Error Prevalence and Severity

By Ali Rashidee, MD, MS; Juliana Hart, BSN, MPH, CPHQ; Jack Chen, MS; Sanjaya Kumar, MD, MSc, MPH

Use of medications is the most common patient
treatment intervention in healthcare. It is also the most common source
of adverse events in the inpatient setting (Leape et al., 1991).
Adverse events from medication usage increase morbidity and mortality
as well as the overall cost of care.

Medication Safety Technologies:
What Is and Is Not Working

By David W. Bates, MD, MSc; Robert M. Wachter, MD; and Tim Vanderveen, PharmD, MS

Almost ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine report, To Err Is Human
(2000), galvanized healthcare, patients, Congress, and the media to pay
attention to the problems of patient and medication safety. In the
years that followed, hospitals made enormous investments to improve
practice and implement safety technologies. How far have we come? Where
are we now? Is there any way to anticipate what happens next?

Biomedical Device Integration:
The Impact on Clinicians at the Point of Care

By Brian McAlpine

Hospitals are constantly evaluating new
technologies that promise to improve the quality of care, create a
safer care environment, and improve both clinical and operational
efficiency. If, however, technologies are evaluated solely on their
individual merits, they may introduce problems to the clinician’s
complex work environment. When new technologies are deployed, there is
often some impact to the clinical workflow.

Tests of Change:
Simulated Design of Experiments in Healthcare Delivery

By Brian A. Stockhoff, PhD 

Hospital administrators and quality department personnel seeking to improve hospital processes often find it difficult to implement change. This is true especially when
recommended changes potentially are highly disruptive, directly affect
patient quality of care, or must be tested in a trial-and-error
approach. The risk aversion that arises from past failed attempts and
lack of confidence in the success of proposed changes exacts a
significant toll on continuous improvement efforts.

EHR Supports Healthier Patients
and a Healthier Bottom Line

By Leslie Chapman, MBA

Graybill Medical Group boasts 130,000 patient
visits per year and annual revenues of more than $22 million. But in
the tightly regulated and highly competitive Southern California
market, the practice, which serves patients from three site locations
in Escondido, Fallbrook, and San Marcos, is always looking for ways to
enhance outcomes, increase patient safety and satisfaction, and reduce
expenses.