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Search results for "United States of America"

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Newspaper/Magazine Article

Study: clinicians copy and paste about half of text in EHR progress notes.

Landi H. Healthcare Informatics. June 1, 2017.

The use of copy and paste is a popular time-saving mechanism to update electronic medical documentation, but this practice can introduce risks. This news article reports on various resources that explore problems associated with the copying and pasting in electronic health records, including a recent study that highlighted how this practice can perpetuate incomplete or wrong information into patient records.

Journal Article > Study

Implications of electronic health record downtime: an analysis of patient safety event reports.

Larsen E, Fong A, Wernz C, Ratwani RM. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 May 30; [Epub ahead of print].

When electronic health records are out of use, either for planned upgrades or because of unexpected malfunction, this downtime disrupts usual hospital workflow. This study conducted an automated text search to identify incident reports related to electronic record downtime and analyzed the selected reports. Electronic health record downtime led to issues with laboratory testing including specimen identification errors and delayed transmission of results. Medication administration errors were also prevalent during downtime. Researchers found that downtime could hinder patient identification and information availability, which may result in serious safety hazards. The authors advocate for development of more comprehensive downtime procedures to address safety concerns as well as more consistent adherence to existing procedures.

Journal Article > Commentary

Emerging from EHR purgatory—moving from process to outcomes.

Goroll AH. N Engl J Med. 2017;376:2004-2006.

Electronic health records can both contribute to and detract from patient safety. This commentary discusses how the physician payment system hinders the development and innovation needed to enhance the ability of electronic health record systems to deliver on promises of improved safety and quality.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

Deep learning is a black box, but health care won't mind.

Brouillette M. MIT Technol Rev. April 27, 2017.

Artificial intelligence can support diagnostic decision-making. This magazine article reports on the use of algorithms to identify dermatologic cancers and highlights progress toward achieving success with these tools.

Journal Article > Commentary

Identifying and analyzing diagnostic paths: a new approach for studying diagnostic practices.

Rao G, Epner P, Bauer V, Solomonides A, Newman-Toker DE. Diagnosis. 2017;4:67-72.

This commentary explores diagnosis of common conditions in primary care and highlights approaches for studying the process, such as practice variation and patterning. The authors suggest big data as a method to mine electronic medical records to identify the information needed to inform improvement.

Journal Article > Study

A national survey assessing the number of records allowed open in electronic health records at hospitals and ambulatory sites.

Adelman JS, Berger MA, Rai A, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 Apr 17; [Epub ahead of print].

Wrong-patient errors can occur during computerized provider order entry, particularly if ordering clinicians have more than one patient record open. Experts have recommended that health systems allow only a single patient record to be open at a time to prevent these errors. This national survey of electronic health record leaders examined whether health systems permit records for multiple patients to be open simultaneously for electronic ordering and documentation. Nearly 200 health systems responded to the survey, and respondents described widely differing practices. Among health systems where clinicians could open multiple patient records at a time, the common justification was to support efficiency. A significant proportion did impose a restriction of working on one patient record at a time, and a smaller group limited clinicians to working with two open patient records only. These results suggest that further study of the optimal number of open patient records is needed to balance safety and efficiency in completing electronic health record work.

Journal Article > Study

Effects of workload, work complexity, and repeated alerts on alert fatigue in a clinical decision support system.

Ancker JS, Edwards A, Nosal S, Hauser D, Mauer E, Kaushal R; HITEC Investigators. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2017;17:36.

Alarm fatigue is an increasingly recognized safety concern. This retrospective cohort study found that primary care clinicians were more likely to override alerts when there were multiple alerts per patient, but overrides were not related to overall workload or repeated exposure to the same alert. The authors recommend reducing the number of alerts per patient to address alarm fatigue.

Journal Article > Study

Analysis of variations in the display of drug names in computerized prescriber-order-entry systems.

Quist AJL, Hickman TT, Amato MG, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2017;74:499-509.

Evidence suggests that computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems improve medication safety by mitigating prescribing errors. However, CPOE systems may contribute to errors when user-centered design is not taken into account. In this study, researchers standardized the assessment of 10 distinct inpatient and ambulatory CPOE systems across 6 health care institutions to determine how variation in drug name display may increase the risk of medication errors. Using test patient scenarios, they found significant variation in drug name display, including inconsistencies with regard to the display of brand and generic names. Providers could theoretically prescribe both the brand and generic drug, increasing the risk for patient harm. A recent Annual Perspective discussed the benefits and limitations of CPOE with regard to patient safety.

Journal Article > Study

Automated detection of look-alike/sound-alike medication errors.

Rash-Foanio C, Galanter W, Bryson M, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2017;74:521-527.

Look-alike and sound-alike medications increase the risk of adverse drug events. This retrospective study found that look-alike and sound-alike medications can be identified in an automated fashion by comparing a medication and its known look-alike and sound-alike medications to diagnostic codes at the point of computerized provider order entry. This is a promising strategy for preventing this type of prescribing error.

Journal Article > Study

Innovative use of the electronic health record to support harm reduction efforts.

Hyman D, Neiman J, Rannie M, Allen R, Swietlik M, Balzer A. Pediatrics. 2017;139:e20153410.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services no longer reimburses hospitals for certain hospital-acquired conditions—an increasingly recognized source of preventable harm to patients. Researchers describe how they were able to reduce harm resulting from hospital-acquired conditions at their institution by more than 30% through improved use of electronic health record data and reporting tools.

Journal Article > Study

The impact of electronic medical records on hospital-acquired adverse safety events: differential effects between single-source and multiple-source systems.

Bae J, Rask KJ, Becker ER. Am J Med Qual. 2017 Apr 1; [Epub ahead of print].

Electronic health records enhance patient safety, but they also have unintended consequences. This retrospective study found that hospitals with a single-source electronic health record were less likely to have hospital-acquired safety events compared to hospitals with multiple systems in place. These results suggest that safety gaps may arise at the interface of multiple electronic systems.

Journal Article > Study

Association between elements of electronic health record systems and the weekend effect in urgent general surgery.

Kothari AN, Brownlee SA, Blackwell RH, et al. JAMA Surg. 2017;152:602-603.

This statewide, retrospective cross-sectional study identified longer than expected length of stay for urgent surgical procedures on the weekend compared to weekdays. Hospitals with electronic operating room scheduling and electronic bed management systems were less likely to demonstrate the weekend effect. These results suggest that health information technology can be employed to mitigate the weekend effect.

Journal Article > Commentary

A learning health care system using computer-aided diagnosis.

Cahan A, Cimino JJ. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19:e54.

Although advanced computing can assist in diagnosis, these systems are not routinely utilized. This commentary suggests a framework to develop diagnostic support technologies that capture physician knowledge to enhance diagnostic safety. The authors encourage drawing from crowdsourced data to guide improvements at a system level to address future practice and educational needs.

Journal Article > Study

Medication safety in two intensive care units of a community teaching hospital after electronic health record implementation: sociotechnical and human factors engineering considerations.

Carayon P, Wetterneck TB, Cartmill R, et al. J Patient Saf. 2017 Feb 28; [Epub ahead of print].

This human factors study examined how electronic health record (EHR) implementation affected medication safety. Researchers encountered improvements in transcription, dispensing, and administration errors after EHR introduction. Several types of medication prescribing errors, including choosing the wrong drug, duplicate orders, or orders with incorrect information, increased with EHR use. This study adds to the evidence suggesting EHR implementation has mixed effects on medication safety.

Journal Article > Study

Evaluation of medication-related clinical decision support alert overrides in the intensive care unit.

Wong A, Amato MG, Seger DL, et al. J Crit Care. 2017;39:156-161.

This retrospective study reviewed more than 47,000 overridden medication alerts and found that the vast majority of overrides were clinically appropriate and did not cause harm. From this sample, 7 adverse drug events were identified, and these events were more likely when the alerts were overridden in error. This study demonstrates the challenge of identifying clinically important alerts in a setting where alert fatigue is common.

Journal Article > Study

Are informed policies in place to promote safe and usable EHRs? A cross-industry comparison.

Savage EL, Fairbanks RJ, Ratwani RM. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 Feb 19; [Epub ahead of print].

Poor usability of electronic health records is a patient safety concern. This qualitative study found that usability policies from the Office of the National Coordinator for electronic health records are less prescriptive about testing final products and rely more on attestation, compared to the Food and Drug Administration's usability policies for medical devices or the Federal Aviation Administration's usability policies for avionics. The authors suggest that other agencies' usability policies could inform federal efforts to enhance electronic health record usability.

Journal Article > Study

Learning from errors: analysis of medication order voiding in CPOE systems.

Kannampallil TG, Abraham J, Solotskaya A, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 Feb 17; [Epub ahead of print].

Although computerized provider order entry has been found to prevent some medication errors, simulation studies have also demonstrated that electronic prescribing platforms can introduce or fail to prevent medication errors. This retrospective electronic health record analysis examined medication orders that were canceled. Weekend and overnight orders were less likely to be voided than weekday or daytime orders. Pharmacist, nurse, and student orders were more likely to be canceled than physician orders. Comparing the clinician-provided reason for voiding an order with the more comprehensive information in the medical record, physicians found that clinicians' reported reasons for voiding orders were largely inaccurate. The authors suggest there is unrealized potential to characterize medication ordering errors using voided-order data.

Journal Article > Study

Screening electronic health record–related patient safety reports using machine learning.

Marella WM, Sparnon E, Finley E. J Patient Saf. 2017;13:31-36.

Voluntary error reporting systems are an important part of safety improvement programs, but difficulty in analyzing error reports has limited their utility. This study described the development of a machine learning algorithm to analyze free-text data in incident reports. The algorithm proved to be accurate in classifying events when compared to manual review.

Journal Article > Study

Meaningful use of health information technology and declines in in-hospital adverse drug events.

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Furukawa MF, Spector WD, Limcangco MR, Encinosa WE. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 Feb 16; [Epub ahead of print].

Electronic health records have both safety benefits and unintended consequences. This analysis used data from the 2010–2013 Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System to compare the incidence of in-hospital adverse events among hospitals that did and did not meet meaningful use requirements for health information technology (IT), according to the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society Analytics Database. Investigators found that hospitals that met meaningful use criteria also reported fewer adverse events. Although the study design does not establish a causal relationship between implementation of health IT and the decline in adverse events, the authors argue that these advances in health IT contributed to this patient safety improvement.

Journal Article > Commentary

Orders on file but no labs drawn: investigation of machine and human errors caused by an interface idiosyncrasy.

Schreiber R, Sittig DF, Ash J, Wright A. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 Feb 16; [Epub ahead of print].

Lack of interoperabilty and user errors are safety concerns associated with the use of electronic health records (EHRs). This case report provides two examples of problems with order cancellations in EHRs due to ineffective interfacing of systems that led to gaps in care. The authors recommend that hospitals test new information technologies to help identify weaknesses and make the ordering process safer.

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