Quality and Safety

In collaboration with ECRI, a new report outlines best practices, suggesting that copy-and-paste data should be easily identifiable, with its original source easy to discern.

Researchers will use big data to eliminate the issues of monitoring infectious diseases on a global level, such as tracking disease elimination campaigns, detecting co-infections and increasing rare disease detection in high-risk populations.

HIMSS is recognizing North York General for its clinical decision support, computerized provider order entry and closed-loop medication administration initiatives that improved patient outcomes.

EHRs have become an integral part of healthcare delivery, but there is a sense that they aren't fulfilling their enormous potential as conduits for personal health information, patient diagnostics, point-of-care decision support and more.

Jupiter is first community hospital in U.S. to adopt IBM Watson for Oncology.

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have both recently been revalidated for Stage 7 status on the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model.

Valhalla, New York.-based Bon Secours Charity Health System, part of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, has forged a $180 million population health initiative with technology giant Philips to improve quality of patient care.  

Shareefa Albulmonem, head of eServices, Office of the CIO at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Saudi Arabia, is one of seven women being honored by HIMSS with a Most Influential Women in Health IT Award. The women will be recognized at a reception and awards dinner, both on February 20 at HIMSS17 Here, in her own words, is Shareefa Al Abulmonem’s reaction to learning she was among the seven winners: I am not sure if it’s just me or does life have some amazing surreal moments … After walking out of a meeting, I received a message in my inbox that stated something around my HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award nomination.  I never expected to win as there are many deserving women in healthcare and I thought I was just being informed of the nomination process. I passed the phone over to my boss who was standing next to me in the hospital. He read it and let out a loud cheer that made everyone in the hospital corridors stop and wonder what just happened. In his haste, he congratulated me for being shortlisted and said “inshallah we hope you win.” The phone got passed to one of my employees and after reading it she told me, “Shareefa, you won!” How could I win?!  It’s probably a mistake so I checked for other emails from Carla Smith or HIMSS where they might be apologizing for the mix-up. Nothing. I called my husband and told him, I think I need to go shopping as I am experiencing one of those surreal moments. On the way home I read the email from Carla a couple of times and came to the conclusion, “Wow, I won!” That’s when all of the achievements that brought you to this point start replaying in your mind. I would like to dedicate this award to all the women of healthcare in Saudi Arabia. The transformations we are making together symbolize the importance we place on women’s health and the importance of a healthy nation. It gives us an opportunity to be role models to the younger generation as to the changes we would like to happen. Alhamdulillah, the Zahra Breast Cancer Association has grown to become the regional face of women’s health, and I was just a member of an extraordinary team who shared the same vision. My career has been full of individuals who were mentors and guides for me throughout and I would like to thank them all. Saudi Arabia is an evolving country and to be an active part of the country’s transformation is a blessing. I believe technology drives majority of the advancements we are currently witnessing throughout the world, and the same applies in healthcare. King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center – KFSH&RC has given me the platform to leverage and implement technology for the betterment of health, patient and citizen care.  T The launch of SEHATY, KFSH&RC Patient Portal, and the praise it received opened numerous other opportunities to build on continuum of care and to be able to constantly engage the patient in the management of their health. There are endless possibilities of how technology can be utilized in the appropriate and various ways in healthcare. This award has given me a boost on how much more effort lays ahead, so thank you for sharing this surreal moment with me, but I really need to get back to work!

Houston Methodist replaced best-of-breed clinical applications with an integrated EHR. The successful transition involved managing not just technology but, equally as important, employees across multiple teams. Here’s a look at lessons learned. 

Access to healthcare is underpinned in large part on a health consumer’s access to information about available health care services, their location, price, and if the patient is very fortunate to glean, quality. As people take on more responsibility for managing their health care utilization and financing in America, their access to information that is easy-to-find, clear, comprehensive and current is critical to personal and public health outcomes. But consumers are dissatisfied with the state of health care information in their lives, discovered through a survey supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Oliver Wyman, and conducted by the Altarum Institute. Results of this study were published in the report, Right Place, Right Time: Health Information and Vulnerable Populations. Oliver Wyman featured these findings in a conversation held at the World Economic Forum in Davos week titled, Vulnerable Populations and the Great Health Divide. The study’s top-line insight was that vulnerable US health citizens are health information-compromised. This group of people tends to be uninsured, Spanish-speaking, caregiving, and enrolled in Medicaid. The lack of health/care information access jeopardizes care access and quality, putting people at-risk for worse health outcomes, eventual higher costs, and greater burden of disease compared with people who enjoy health information access. Health consumers want financial transparency; simpler, direct language; mobile-friendly formats; and, respect. This is a lightbulb moment finding in the survey; see the Hot Points, below. The study’s key findings were that: Consumers demand cost information and mobile-friendly websites Consumers seek improvements to information about cost of care, accessibility, and comparisons Caregivers use the most health care information but struggle to find resources to help themselves Uninsured people have greater difficulty accessing health care information Spanish speaking people struggle with language barriers, and rely on friends and family to offer advice and remedies Patients who feel disrespected by providers are less likely to trust health care information or follow medical advice. For the poll, Altarum Institute interviewed 4,068 consumers via a mail and web survey, and conducted interviews and focus groups with 65 consumers. Research was fielded between June and August 2016. Health Populi’s Hot Points:  The role of respect in the relationship between patient-consumer and provider cannot be underestimated, based on the clinical evidence found in this study. Specifically: feeling disrespected was linked to medication non-adherence. Thirty-two percent of people without health insurance feel disrespected, this study found. People who are sicker tend to feel less respected, as well as those with lower incomes. The Rodney Dangerfield feeling of “can’t get respect” leads to health consumers being three times less likely to trust information provided by their doctors. Furthermore, patients who feel disrespected by providers are twice as likely to be non-adherent to medication regimens. For example, people with diabetes (PWD) who do not feel respected are one-third more likely to have poorly-controlled diabetes compared with PWDs who feel respect from their providers.  User-centered design is mandatory for the health information economy. Health information portals are poorly utilized because they lack good design informed by patients’ values, digital literacy, and life-flows. Empathy is part of this ethos. The report notes that, “Good patient-provider relationships are not just part of good bedside manner…positive patient-provider relationships should be considered a medical priority, and should be encouraged through training, education and, potentially, compensation changes.” Throughout the health/care ecosystem, as we work to incorporate health in all policies and cultures of health, we must be mindful that empathy, caring, and respect are key ingredients in user-centered design. Check out the approach of Dignity Health’s #hellohumankindness as an example of branding and delivering on empathy in healthcare. This post originally appeared on Health Populi.