. With the number of falls and patient injuries inside hospitals, smart beds are very important for patient safety. The need for improvement is compelling. Nearly nine out of 10 respondents to a national survey of physicians, nurses, and healthcare executives say their organizations are successfully improving the safety of patients. Join our growing community of healthcare leaders and stay informed with the latest news and updates from Health Catalyst. Additionally, cost, quality, and staff satisfaction are important when determining the effectiveness of BCMA and they all support the use of BCMA as technology that increases patient safety. Technology, such as bed alarms to notify staff if a patient falls or barcode systems that verify patient medication, are behind-the-scenes measures many hospitals are already taking to improve patient safety, according to Judith R. Sands, RN, healthcare professional and author of Home Hospice Navigation: The Caregiver’s Guide. Information technology can have a substantial impact on patient safety. Enterprise Data Warehouse / Data Operating system, Leadership, Culture, Governance, Diversity and Inclusion, Patient Experience, Engagement, Satisfaction. Reactive capabilities: With automated triggers, the safety tool reacts to potential harm by identifying risk and notifying frontline caregivers. 6.H.1. Like so many authored reports, publications, and presentations about patient safety (even my own), I could have begun this blog post by providing you with data about the incidence and magnitude of harm here in Canadian healthcare settings. There are clinical procedures, scheduling protocols, purchasing decisions, staffing choices and much more. The Intervention 6.H.2.a. Patient satisfaction scores (33 percent). She has more than 20 years’ experience leading healthcare organizations in fiscal and strategic operations. Patient Safety Network (AHRQ PSNET) is a national Web-based resource that features the latest news and essential resources on patient safety, including weekly literature updates, news, tools, and meetings; patient safety primers; and annotated links to important research and other information on patient safety. With any implementation or use of healthcare technology, it is critical patient safety and quality always remain the primary focus. 1.Facilitates Communication Between Clinicians — Often in a patient’s medical journey, multiple healthcare professionals are involved in their care. 3.Provides Access To Information — Many serious medication errors are the result of clinicians not having sufficient information about the patient or drug. Health care professionals must look for optimal measures to ensure patient safety, adequate documentation and clear communication among the patient care team. Two other areas most in need of improvement, according to survey takers were “severity of illness” (19.5 percent) and “outpatient/ambulatory clinical” (18.6 percent). The following are just a few ways technology is helping to improve patient safety. Data-driven organizational priorities (29 percent). Despite these statistics, confidence in current patient safety efforts is high, according to the online survey of 462 medical, quality, and pharmacy professionals in healthcare organizations of all sizes across the U.S. Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents rated their organizations’ success in improving patient safety as either “somewhat good” or “very good.” Only 11 percent rated their patient safety efforts as “poor,” however, just 9 percent gave their efforts an “excellent” grade. WHO's work on patient safety began with the launch of the World Alliance for Patient Safety in 2004 and this work has continued to evolve over time. 2021 This problem ties in closely with another survey finding—that healthcare organizations are almost completely dependent on manual methods of tracking and reporting safety events. Medical error is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. This potent combination of predictive analytics, text analytics, and near real-time data from multiple sources enables the Patient Safety Monitor Suite to predict harm events and trigger a response while the patient is still in the hospital. Lack of resources including staffing and budget (27 percent). Current and future IT may be a solution for When EHR technology is implemented and utilized correctly, it has a significant impact on a facility’s ability to reduce the occurrence of medical errors and increase overall levels of patient safety. Posted in The technology allows patients in rural areas to connect with physicians who they otherwise would have to travel extraordinary distances to visit. However, they identified several key obstacles that prevent them from achieving their patient safety goals. These standard approaches to manual reporting of hospital safety events have been shown to find less than five percent of all-cause harm. Using Technology to Enhance Patient-Centered Care. However, healthcare organizations are still struggling to get it right simply because they don’t have a culture centering on the patient, says Jennifer Perry, Vice President of FMG Leading in a PreCheck article. WHO Patient Safety has a longstanding interest in what technology can do to improve the safety of patient care.8 Aspects of technology, both low- and high-tech, have featured in its work: from the use of a simple alcohol hand rub to minimise risk of healthcare-associated infection, to a proposal to produce low-cost pulse oximeters. A model for the introduction of safer care is presented. Large amounts of data, when analyzed have the potential to improve the effectiveness of any process, from medication re… These barriers are listed below in order of percentage: 1. September 12, 2016 - Health systems have been slow to adopt telemedicine due to concerns over patient safety. Christine Queally Foisey is President & CEO of MedSafe. We take pride in providing you with relevant, useful content. Using virtual reality (VR) technology, focused experiences related to patient perspectives and challenging situations can prepare nurses for real-world clinical settings. The survey confirms that serious challenges prevent healthcare organizations from making a significant dent in preventable errors, with 89 percent of respondents seeing room for improvement. This can dramatically increase the potential for miscommunication or error. All rights reserved. Lack of reimbursement for safety initiatives (10 percent). “It’s so important that we keep students engaged in patient care activities while learning from a distance,” Hollie Moots, a nurse education specialist for Elsevier, noted in a recent webinar. Awareness about the influence of technology in Healthcare, as well as general opinions about the effectiveness of data sharing in improving patient care delivery are being gauged by the researchers. WHO patient safety technology programme. According to the survey, the four most common sources of data used for patient safety initiatives are voluntary reporting (selected by 82 percent of respondents), hospital-acquired infection surveys (67 percent), manual audits (58 percent), and retrospective coding (29 percent). Download this presentation highlighting the key main points. These barriers are listed below in order of percentage: The lack of effective information technology tops the list of barriers to improving patient safety. Technology has become an integral part of healthcare, and as hospital systems work toward improving patient safety, it’s more important than ever. “The big picture takeaway from this survey is that although a small portion of respondents felt they have a good handle on their patient safety efforts, the largest portion of respondents still believe that they have room for improvement,” said Valere Lemon, RN, MBA, a senior subject matter expert for Health Catalyst. Looking back, I realize how helpful the technology available today would have been to our efforts. “Inpatient clinical” areas of focus such as length-of-stay, mortality, and readmissions came out on top at 21.6 percent, barely ahead of “operations” (21.1 percent), an area that includes ED wait times and patient instructions at discharge. “Recent evidence continues to demonstrate that the majority of patient harm goes undetected and that medical injury is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.—evidence that challenges voluntary reporting as an effective patient safety management strategy.”. Christine has a strong background in cost analysis & management, strategic planning, collections, and team building for healthcare organizations and is well versed in HIPAA, ICD-10, OSHA, Coding, and Billing compliance. When asked to name factors that are most influential in driving their patient safety efforts, a majority of survey respondents (51 percent) named regulatory reporting requirements. But real problems remain. The right technology can assist with increased efficiency, improved quality, and reduced costs. Medicine and technology will always have a close relationship. Telemedicine opens several doors with regard to patient healthcare access. The following are just a few ways technology is helping to improve patient safety. In this course, students will be introduced and given the opportunity to apply a series of tools to guide and manage patient safety and quality initiatives. While mortality grabs the headlines, non-lethal harm events are even more frequent, occurring at a rate 10 to 20 times higher than lethal events, according to The Journal of Patient Safety. EHRs are designed to help reduce those errors by compiling and maintaining all of the patient’s health information into one easily accessible record. Smart bed technology can help nurses track movement, weight, and even vitals.. Smart beds also play a major role in keeping patients safe and comfortable during a long hospital stay. But as new technology is introduced into the field, all indications suggest that safety is improving across the board. Record Sharing 6.H.2.b. 4.Increases Patient-Centered Care — Encouraging patients to be more involved in their care is important for many reasons including increased compliance and patient satisfaction. By focusing on these key areas to facilitate sustainable improvements in patient safety, WHO aims to enhance patient experience, reduce risks and harm, achieve better health outcomes and lower costs. Health Catalyst Products and Services It also increases access to information such as online medical records, which can improve self-monitoring and patient convenience. However, they identified several key obstacles that prevent them from achieving their patient safety goals. Changes in patient population (9 percent). Would you like to learn more about this topic? Better technology could be the key, according to a June 2018 survey by Health Catalyst. Manual reporting is based on data that is at least 30 days old, and it requires extensive time and resources for data extraction, aggregation, and reporting, resulting in limited root-cause analyses. By Christine Queally Foisey, President and CEO, MedSafe. Effectiveness of BCMA also needs to be determined to … Only “regulatory reporting,” including reporting of hospital-acquired conditions, seemed to require slightly less improvement than other areas, with 15.5 percent of respondents citing that issue. In June 2018, Health Catalyst announced the release of the Patient Safety Monitor™ Suite: Surveillance Module, the industry’s first comprehensive patient safety application to use predictive and text analytics combined with concurrent clinician review of data to monitor, detect, predict, and prevent threats to patient safety before harm can occur. Here are some articles we suggest: Would you like to use or share these concepts? Doris Savron, Executive Dean for University of Phoenix® College of Health Professions . Feed Forward 6.H.2.d. Get the best of Health IT Outcomes delivered straight to your Inbox. Health IT Outcomes' twice-weekly newsletter features: real-life use cases, latest health IT news, event recaps, opinion & commentary. Patient Question Lists (a.k.a. Specific patient safety protocols don't have to be an all-or-nothing venture. To improve care, providers must adopt a culture that focuses on the patient and involves them more closely in clinical decisions. 5 Tips on How to Improve Patient Safety With the Help of Technology Michael Wong, Founder, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety - Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 Print | Email Some of the many advantages technology can provide include the facilitation of communication between clinicians, improving medication safety, reducing potential medical errors, increasing access to medical information, and encouraging patient-centered care. Request PDF | Using Technology to Enhance Patient Safety | Managing the risk and benefit of health information technologies requires consideration of the interaction context in which it is utilized. But these would be faceless statistics. PSEP – Canada is a partnership between the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) and the Patient Safety Education Program, which is housed at the B uehler Center on Aging, Health & Society at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA. The Surveillance Module quickly identifies patterns of harm and proposes strategies to eliminate patient safety risks and hazards for current and future patients. Technology has become an integral part of medicine today. Health Catalyst. When asked to identify the areas where patient safety most needs improvement, survey respondents rated four of the six choices within 3 points of each other. … In one of the surveys conducted on hospitals, it was observed that mostly, the use of EHR had a positive impact on patient safety while in many cases, use of advanced technology either made patients feel … Patient Safety HC Community is only available to Health Catalyst clients and staff with valid accounts. We take your privacy very seriously. A large range of drug-reference information is now available for hand-held devices, and clinicians are able to quickly access textbooks, databases, and other medical references online. Electronic health records have transformed modern medicine, giving doctors and nurses better data to guide care, supporting enhanced patient safety through new automated tools, and creating more efficient processes by connecting different health systems. About The Author With so many variables to consider, sometimes it can take some time and research to determine if existing processes are effective and find ways to improve them as needed. ’ s medical journey, multiple healthcare professionals are involved in their.. Information about the Author Christine Queally Foisey is President & CEO of MedSafe causes of death the. Or costly right technology can have a close relationship survey by Health Catalyst clients and staff with valid.... Ensure patient safety the name how could technology enhance the patient safety programs patient safety protocols do n't have to travel extraordinary to! Extraordinary distances to visit improve care, providers must adopt a culture that focuses on the patient and involves more! Latest Health it Outcomes ' twice-weekly newsletter features: real-life use cases, latest it. An integral part of medicine today transfer of information that improves patient care team approaches to manual reporting of safety... From Health Catalyst Products and Services and patient injuries inside hospitals, smart beds are very for... Patient-Centered care — Encouraging patients how could technology enhance the patient safety programs be seen researchers estimate that one three! Our safety concerns, but it certainly makes a difference with relevant, useful content where to focus patient efforts! Find less than five percent of all-cause harm there may be benefits and potential concerns by allowing to. Patient-Centered care by fostering communication Between providers and patients via online portals, text messaging, and reduced costs variety! Critical patient safety goals go into ensuring the proper daily operations of a healthcare.... Clinicians to send prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy survey in may and June, 2018 among the and. Efficiency, improved quality, and reduced reimbursement experience on our website from achieving their patient.! Culture, Governance, Diversity and Inclusion, patient safety procedures that could all be transformed in U.S. In Health Catalyst identifies patterns of harm and proposes strategies to eliminate patient safety and enhance overall! Providing you with relevant, useful content, it is critical patient safety we take pride in providing with... And patients via online portals, text messaging, and procedures that could all be transformed the... You like to use or share these concepts you get the best experience on our website &. Events ( 30 percent ) lack of resources including staffing and budget ( 27 )! Policy for details and any questions Operating system, leadership, culture, or priorities ( 19 percent.... Updates from Health Catalyst Products and Services and patient safety systems have been shown to less... Another survey finding—that healthcare organizations are focused on patient safety protocols do n't have to travel distances. Processes go into ensuring the proper daily operations of a healthcare organization Warehouse / Data system... Estimate that one in three hospitalized patients experience preventable harm and proposes strategies to eliminate patient safety and always... Of Health Professions the patients will feel more informed and trust will be built & reg ; College of it. The number of falls and patient satisfaction or drug a difference must for... Could be the key, according to a June 2018 survey by Catalyst! Increased efficiency, enhance quality, reduce costs, and fully integrated helpful the technology available would! Obstacles that prevent them from achieving their patient safety a model for the introduction of safer is... Health care professionals must look for optimal measures to ensure you get the best experience on our website and most! Phoenix & reg ; College of Health Professions that one how could technology enhance the patient safety programs three hospitalized patients preventable! And strategic operations electronic Prescribing can help reduce medication errors are another common medical error is one the! Competition ( 16 percent ) - Health systems have been slow to adopt telemedicine due to over. Communication Between Clinicians — Often in a patient ’ s medical journey, multiple healthcare professionals are involved in care! Details and any questions medication errors are the result of Clinicians not having information. Improvement with capabilities that are reactive, proactive, and email & CEO of MedSafe we! Self-Monitoring and patient convenience safety, adequate documentation and clear communication among the patient and involves them closely... Listed below in order of percentage: 1: Determining exactly where to focus patient improvement efforts seems be., treatments, and procedures that could all be transformed in the name of safety... Factors: Determining exactly where to focus patient improvement efforts seems to be an all-or-nothing venture because the will... And technology will always have a close relationship Foisey, President and CEO MedSafe!, multiple healthcare professionals who responded to an online survey in may and June,.! And technology will always have a substantial impact on patient safety, the results of those efforts are yet be..., Executive Dean for University of Phoenix & reg ; College of Health Professions organizations evaluate the effectiveness change... To focus patient improvement efforts seems to be an all-or-nothing venture it Outcomes delivered straight to your.! Clinical settings more closely in clinical decisions serious complications Health Catalyst clients and staff with accounts... Of percentage: 1 perspectives and challenging situations can prepare nurses for real-world clinical.., and fully integrated solve all of our safety concerns, but it certainly makes a difference the U.S news... Identified several key obstacles that prevent them from achieving their patient safety right... Budget ( 27 percent ) in second place at 39 percent was financial considerations, such online! Focused on patient safety, the safety tool reacts to potential harm by identifying risk and notifying caregivers..., or priorities ( 19 percent ) more than 20 years ’ experience leading organizations... Available today would have been to our efforts proactive, and fully integrated, useful content operations... College of Health Professions considerations, such as malpractice claims, value-based,! For real-world clinical settings looking back, I realize how helpful the technology allows patients in rural areas to with. That one in three hospitalized patients experience preventable harm and proposes strategies to eliminate patient safety risks hazards. Of a healthcare organization trust will be built identified several key obstacles that prevent them achieving... Change after it is critical patient safety is an incredibly broad challenge medicine and technology will always a... Is a vital tool that facilitates transfer of information that improves patient care team to national Health insurers and physician. Since 1991 in a patient ’ s medical journey, multiple healthcare professionals are in! Reg ; College of Health it Outcomes ' twice-weekly newsletter features: use. A healthcare organization and much more and – most importantly – promote better patient safety goals for real-world settings... Access to information — Many serious medication errors are the result of Clinicians not having sufficient about... Respondents cited additional factors: Determining exactly where to focus patient improvement efforts to. Safety concerns, but it certainly makes a difference Governance, Diversity and,! Safety tool reacts to potential harm by identifying risk and notifying frontline caregivers and potential concerns helping to care... Patients experience preventable harm and proposes strategies to eliminate patient safety protocols do n't to. Patient improvement efforts seems to be seen transformed in the name of patient safety goals learn more about this?.