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Technology boosts health care compliance, training systems
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Houston Business Journal - April 24, 2000
/houston/stories/2000/04/24/focus6.html
Friday, April 21, 2000
Technology boosts health care compliance, training systems
Houston Business Journal - by Richard Cole
Health care providers have cut costs and have trimmed their staffs as a means to remain profitable, but at what cost to a patient's safety?
At a time when fewer workers are performing more tasks, health care providers must begin looking for tools that will allow staff members
better access to information and training.
Human performance and safety can be enhanced considerably through technology. Although technology developed for other industries
may be only part of the solution, it does offer the health care industry an immediate avenue to begin addressing the new challenges.
A recent Institute of Medicine report estimates that over 7,000 deaths each year are caused by preventable medication errors. In addition,
preventable medication errors are estimated to increase annual hospital costs by approximately $2 billion nationwide. Many of these
adverse effects are associated with pharmaceuticals.
The Food and Drug Administration receives approximately 100,000 reports per year of adverse events associated with medical devices
and over 250,000 reports associated with pharmaceuticals. The FDA estimates that over one-third of these adverse events are
preventable.
According to the report, the health care industry maintains a proficiency level of 99 percent. Although this is impressive, drastic
improvements are necessary. If performance levels of 99.9 percent were applied to the airline and banking industries (substantially better
than those in health care), it would equate to two dangerous landings per day at O'Hare International Airport or 32,000 checks deducted
from the wrong account per hour.
STREAMLINING ADMINISTRATION
One way that many large companies improve patient safety is by streamlining the administration of their corporate compliance, training
and incident-tracking programs.
This can be accomplished by integrating the system with e-mail, establishing an automatic notification process allowing companies to
fully automate and manage system-wide programs.
Fully integrated systems not only ease administrative burdens but also hold the staff accountable for knowing company policies and
procedures and completing all their assigned training through 24 hour a day Web-based access.
WIRELESS APPLICATION
Health care shares a number of characteristics with other industries, as they all rely on systems which include the interaction of humans
and technology to perform a number of functions leading to an outcome. However, health care is distinct in its complexity. For example, a
patient in an intensive care unit is the recipient of an average of 178 different activities performed per day that rely on the interaction of
monitoring, treatment and support systems.
It has been suggested that many medical errors can be attributed to the simple fact that the knowledge base to effectively and safely
deliver health care exceeds the storage capacity of the human brain. The technology is available, however, to put policy, procedures and
training into the hands of a health care operation's staff using wireless application protocols.
Systems have been developed for use with commercially available hand-held devices, allowing procedures to be downloaded for
immediate access. These systems also provide data collection, incident reporting and sign-off capabilities on a point-of-need basis.When
incidents occur, especially when life threatening, workers may not remember exactly what to do and do not have the time to run a look up
a procedure.
COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING
The Veterans Administration, considered as one of the nation's leaders in patient safety, has instituted patient safety programs in all of its
health care facilities, which serve 3.8 million patients nationwide. This year, the VA will invest over $47.6 million to increase the
requirement for patient safety training for staff from 15 to 20 hours a year. This, in part, isdue to the Institute of Medicine's
recommendation of including periodic re-examination of a health care professional's knowledge of patient safety as part of the provider's
license renewal.
Organizations can implement online testing programs that not only help ensure high levels of competency, but also provide a vehicle for
self-assessment and benchmarking.
http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2000/04/24/focus6.html?t=printable 8/6/2010
