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Issue:
Epidemic of errors
Within the last several years, the American medical
community has begun to appreciate fully the severity of the illness
and injury that result from medical errors. According to a 2003
report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Patient
Safety: Achieving a New Standard of Care, “Every day,
tens if not hundreds of thousands of errors occur in the U.S. health
care system.” 1
To Err is Human: Building
a Safer Health System, the landmark IOM report released in
2000, conservatively estimated that medical errors rank among the
top ten causes of death in America. 2 In
response, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded
nearly 100 research grants, demonstration projects and other initiatives3.
This work—and complementary efforts sponsored by healthcare
purchasers, medical providers and a wide range of stakeholders—constitutes
a new movement focused on resolving this imminently preventable
threat.
Solution:
Total clinical information workflow
The first of seven recommendations offered by the
authors of Patient Safety calls
for improved information management and data systems across the
board. On this point, the report specifically cites as key both
“immediate access to complete patient information and decision
support tools” and capture of patient safety information with
which “to design even safer care delivery systems.”
4
Just as enhanced patient safety results in improved
quality of care, enhancing the decisions clinicians make requires
improving the ease, breadth and speed of access to the information
they need. Here are some additional approaches to applying information
as a patient safety solution:
- Establish continuity of
data. For the greatest impact on clinical workflow, patient
information must span the entire hospital or health system. A
single clinical documentation system should integrate the emergency,
critical care, and perinatal departments—not just medical-surgical.
With this more complete picture of patients’ status, physicians
and nurses gain a tremendously valuable tool for better diagnostic
and treatment decisions.
- Secure a foundation for
advanced clinical computing. As a pre-requisite for success
in providing true clinical decision support, first capture detailed
and complete patient information at the point of care. Robust
clinical documentation and charting systems provide the foundation
for truly integrated order entry, real-time intervention for acutely
decompensating patients, and retrospective outcomes analysis.
- Automate—and transform—interaction
with patient data. In addition to replacing repetitive
tasks with labor-saving technologies, give doctors and nurses
information management tools that help them visualize patient
data trends more effectively, streamline collaboration among clinical
teams, and practice in innovative ways.
CliniComp
Essentris™ advantage:
Proven clinical documentation for reinforced patient safety
Fast, integrated clinical documentation.
With Essentris™, clinicians input, edit, and access patient
chart data simply and quickly. Nurses and physicians gain integrated
access to readings, orders, results, and other data from a limitless
range of systems including physiological monitors, devices, ADT
systems, lab results and thousands of hospital-based systems.
- Automated clinical alerts
and calculations. Essentris transforms your processes with
precise patient monitoring, timely clinical alerts and reminders,
automated clinical calculations and tasks list generation, online
reference capabilities, and plan of care tools.
- Configurable data presentation
and visualization. A highly configurable platform, Essentris
offers: flow sheets that easily capture and present common patient
data types; clinical notes that can be customized to adapt to
your workflow; and, summary screens that present lists, tables
and graphs according to the needs of your clinical specialty.
And with remote access, physicians can use Essentris on the floors,
at bedside, from the office, or from home.
Enterprise-wide medical record
access. Essentris forms the basis for a longitudinal, enterprise-wide
medical record system that manages and tracks medications, procedures,
physiologic monitor readings, progress notes, and other charted
information while supporting order entry, decision support, outcomes
measurement, reporting, analysis and other key functions.
1 Patient
Safety: Achieving a New Standard of Care.
Philip Aspden, Janet M. Corrigan, Julie Wolcott, and Shari M. Erickson,
editors. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2003.
2 To
Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Linda T. Kohn,
Janet M. Corrigan, and Molla S. Donaldson, editors. Institute of
Medicine, 2000.
3 Patient
Safety: Achieving a New Standard of Care. Philip Aspden,
Janet M. Corrigan, Julie Wolcott, and Shari M. Erickson, editors.
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 2003.
4 Patient
Safety: Achieving a New Standard of Care. Philip Aspden,
Janet M. Corrigan, Julie Wolcott, and Shari M. Erickson, editors.
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 2003.
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