Here are nine findings from the past month on the relationship between HIT and patient safety and quality, beginning with the most recent.
1. El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Calif., reduced readmissions 25 percent by using data analytics and advanced telecommunications.
2. Online health communities are an effective and affordable tool for chronic disease care and management, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
3. An online system connecting primary care providers and specialists at San Francisco General Hospital helped shorten wait times for specialty services and improved the coordination of care.
4. Sentara Healthcare in Chesapeake, Va., announced a 2 percent readmission rate for patients in its remote monitoring program, compared with a 15 percent readmission rate for the hospital at large.
5. Two physician workgroups from the American College of Emergency Physicians have released seven best practices for emergency departments to overcome common pitfalls encountered with electronic health records.
6. Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System noted several advantages and disadvantages of using a common EMR to create a centralized Global Trigger Tool process for measuring adverse events.
7. Boston Children’s Hospital and Verizon Foundation published a whitepaper about how HIT can improve pediatric care delivery.
8. An electronic health record alert that reminded physicians to administer pediatric flu vaccinations increased the odds of children receiving the vaccine, according to a study sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
9. Hybrid workflows — or workflows where a mixture of electronic health records and papers are used for clinical documentation — can contribute to medical errors, according to research published by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.
