Leverage IT to reduce medical errors

Technologies can and will reduce medical errors - not only on prescribing but also on collecting medical history. But not by the precentages - you still have that human interface which maybe tired from 24 hour shifts, to many patients or whatever. But technology leverage at medical can be and would add better healthcare and safer healthcare.

For example - An emergency pt rolls into the ER by ambulance - the person is entered into the system and the pt medical history is displayed in the ER room they were placed in. The ER Physican now has all the medicans they are on, allegries, past medical history (heart problems etc), when the person was last admitted to a hospital and for what..

Technology and healthcare will become a stong combination to aid in pt care and treatment. From beds that monitor vitals all the time - to nanobots for treatments and everywhere between..

If only because of privicy issues. If the system was open to all medical practioners or just restricted to hospitals but fed into by medical practioners there would be a horendious number of people with access to the sustem and it would prove impossible to make secure no matter what was put in place.

Currently the best use for IT in medicne is with remote operations where someone can have an experienced Surgeon on hand even though they are in the middle of nowhere in a different country this shows great promise as it would allow advanced medical procedures to be dome in places that would normally be unable to treat these people but and here is the big but when something breaks down and the signal is lost the guy in the OR is on his own with no backup available and as he and the staff there couldn't normally perform this type of opperation then they are in trouble and they will in all likely hood lose the patient or leave lasting injuries that they can not fix.

Now when this happens who is held responsible the Medical people who are performing to procedure, the medical people advising or the IT person down in a dark dingy hole with no support or backup available?

Yes It does have a lot of promise for medicne but it also has a lot of pitfalls as well what we have to chose is are we willing to put up with the pitfalls just in the hope of increasing less hands on work elsewhere?

The answer lies in six sigma type software. Texas Childrens Hospital has purchased a system (IntroScout) from www.macroenterprises.com that does Quality Outcomes Management, Peer Reviews, Root Cause Analysis and is upgrading to a new HIPAA version.
As a result, they have won awards for the highest quality in the nation.