medical errors

See the following -

Veterans Administration: Delay, Deny, Wait ’Til I Die

Tim Forkes | Baltimore Post-Examiner | July 25, 2013

If you’re a veteran, especially an Iraq and Afghan war vet, you know exactly what that headline means. The backlog at the Veterans Administration rarely makes the news, nor does this startling fact: 22 veterans commit suicide every day. [...] Read More »

Ways EHRs Can Lead To Unintended Safety Problems

Kevin B. O’Reilly | American Medical News | February 25, 2013

Wrong records and failures in data transfer impede physicians and harm patients, according to an analysis of health technology incidents. Read More »

What Health Care Needs Are Some Zombies

Finally, some good health care news: according to Accenture, half of digital health start-ups are going to fail within two years. No, really: that's the good news. Accenture projects that funding for digital start-ups is going to boom over the next few years, reaching $6.5b annually by 2017.  Their analysis categorized four key areas of funding from 2008 - 2013: infrastructure ($2.9b), treatment ($2.6b), engagement ($2.6b), and diagnosis ($2.1b).  They stress that the start-ups that will succeed will do so by combining capabilities across the four areas, such as by use of integrated Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and Sensor technologies ("SMACS"). This boom shouldn't come as much of a surprise...

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White Paper: Stop the Referral Problem - Building Digital Care Transitions that Reach Your Entire Network

The healthcare industry has crossed a digital chasm-at least in part. Patient records have moved from paper to computer and many transactions, such as e-prescribing and lab orders have been automated, to accelerate workflows, minimize mistakes and reduce costs. But when it comes to sharing patient records, especially beyond the four walls of a hospital, we remain in the dark ages of paper and fax...In this paper, we will discuss our research about how referrals and care transitions are typically conducted; the financial, non-financial, and quality impacts on patient care; and near-term opportunities for leveraging technology to accelerate these processes to benefit provider organizations and to deliver a high-quality, efficient patient experience.

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Why I Hope to Help End EHR’s Lack of Interoperability

I am tired of waiting. Millions of medical professionals and patients are tired of waiting.  We have been waiting for EHR interoperability since the dawn of EHRs in the 1960s. Enough is enough! Our goal is to achieve EHR interoperability through a grass roots coalition of medical professionals and patients who are tired of waiting. The simple life-saving ability of hospital EHRs to connect to one another so healthcare providers can easily and readily access patient data is not being addressed.  This type of issue is traditionally solved by industry or government initiatives. But so far they have not, and apparently will not solve it so I have decided to raise this issue through an outpouring of angry citizens, hospital patients, physicians and others being impacted. Read More »

ZH Healthcare OpenEMR Announces New e-Prescription Subscription And Implementation Services For OpenEMR

Press Release | ZH Healthcare | March 28, 2013

ZH Healthcare recently announced a new service for their e-Prescription module for the community version of OpenEMR. The e-Prescription, or frequently referred to as eRx, module includes drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions and the ability to both print and transmit prescriptions electronically. Electronic prescription facilitates faster delivery of medicines, refills and removes errors thus making it extremely reliable and safe.
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Is Digitizing Healthcare Making It Less Safe?

Event Details
Type: 
Seminar/Webinar
Date: 
July 1, 2014 - 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Join InformationWeek Radio on Tuesday, July 1, at 2:00 PM EST for a discussion with Scot M. Silverstein, M.D., a consultant and professor in the Drexel University informatics program who is a leading critic of the claims made for EHR systems and researches the pitfalls of the software and the way it is implemented. He blogs at Health Care Renewal as InformaticsMD. One of the issues he highlights is that there is no systemattic tracking of medical errors associated with functionality or usability issues of EHRs, making it hard to judge whether their net effect has been positive or negative. Yet there are troubling signs, in everything from academic studies to malpractice claims, that the risks of EHRs have been underestimated and the rush to implement these systems may be misguided. Read More »