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Leveraging IT to Improve Patient Safety.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ball, M. J. Garets, D. E. Handler, T. J. |
| Copyright Year | 2003 |
| Abstract | Medical errors and issues of patient safety are hardly new phenomena. Even during the dawn of medicine, Hippocrates counselled new physicians “ to above all else do no harm.” In the United States, efforts to improve the quality of healthcare can be seen in almost every decade of the last century. In the early 1900s, Dr. Ernest Codman failed in his efforts to get fellow surgeons to look at the outcomes of their cases. In the 1970s, there was an outcry that the military allowed an almost blind surgeon to continue to practice and even transferred him to the prestigious Walter Reed Hospital. More recently, two reports by the Institute of Medicine caught the attention of the media, the American public, and the healthcare industry. To Err Is Human highlights the need to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety, and Crossing The Quality Chasm calls for a new health system to provide quality care for the 21st century. Healthcare Has a Problem The IOM is not the only source indicating that the delivery of healthcare has significant shortcomings. A Rand Corporation report describes the U.S. healthcare system as “substandard” and medical errors as “rife.” Only 60% of the chronically ill receive the care they need. Of the care given to the chronically ill, about 20% is “unnecessary and potentially harmful” [1]. According to a Kaiser study, 71% of consumers who are increasingly involved in making their own healthcare decisions are concerned or very concerned about patient safety [2]. 61% fear being given the wrong medication, 56% fear complications in a medical procedure [3]. Furthermore, more than half of U.S. physicians believe that their ability to deliver quality care has decreased in the past five years, and 30% rate their hospitals as fair or poor at finding and addressing medical errors [4]. In a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation survey, Pursuing Perfection, four of five providers believe that “fundamental” changes are needed to ensure patient safety. Seventy-eight percent feel that their organization should take responsibility for developing solutions to the quality challenge. Fewer than 10% find the system close to error-free. The percentage of physicians (95%), nurses (89%), and administrators (82%) who report having witnessed a serious medical mistake is appalling [5]. And then there are the numbers. According to the IOM, medical errors account for an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year in U.S. hospitals, making it a leading cause of death in the United States. Although some have questioned the validity of these numbers, the reality is that people are dying from medical errors. One study of 182 deaths of patients hospitalized for CVA (stroke), pneumonia, or heart attack found that at least 14% and potentially as many as 27% of the deaths might have been prevented [6]. If morbidity and the outpatient environment is considered, the numbers may be far worse than the IOM suggests. A growing number of studies in the peerreviewed literature document the problem. Just over one-fifth of these studies define errors and adverse events, while 65% are medication related. Only recently did a small number of studies begin to examine costs involved [7]. Looking Just at Medication Related Errors According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, adverse drug events cause 777,000 injuries and deaths a year [8]. Medication related deaths in the United States increased 2.37-fold in hospitalized patients and 8.48-fold among outpatients between 1983 and 1993. This equated to one out of 854 inpatient deaths and one out of 131 outpatient deaths in 1993 [9]. Researchers found 5.5 adverse drug events per 100 outpatients coming for care. Of these, 38% were preventable and 23% were serious. Even these numbers must be considered suspect as there is general consensus that errors For personal or educational use only. No other uses without permission. All rights reserved. Downloaded from imia.schattauer.de on 2018-02-23 | IP: 115.113.232.2 |
| Starting Page | 153 |
| Ending Page | 158 |
| Page Count | 6 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1055/s-0038-1638154 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0038-1638154.pdf |
| PubMed reference number | 27706330 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1638154 |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 1 |
| Journal | Yearbook of medical informatics |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
