Healthcare IT News - July 2008 - (Page 8)

8 Healthcare IT News My two cents ■ July 2008 www.HealthcareITNews.com Please, try to get the sponge count right with Bill adams, ceo of Surgicount medical in temecula, calif., I’ve had sponges on my mind. Bloody ones. Better just in my mind’s eye, I suppose, then left inside my body post surgery. I’ve never had surgery, but I have a vivid imagination. Surgical sponges – adams describes them as the size of a cocktail napkin – can kill. Here’s the problem. Surgical nurses are charged with counting the sponges and finding any errant ones before the surgeon closes up. But, mistakes are made. Sometimes the sponge count at the end of surgery – especially in emergency cases – seems to be right when it’s wrong. most hospital operating rooms (or operating “theaters,” as they are sometimes called) use a manual system of counting. no, it’s not the abacus, adams noted. It’s a white board. now, I’m a big fan of the late tim russert, who hosted Meet the Press. He shunned the bells and whistles, neon colors and real time changing patterns in favor of a stark white board. When it came to showing us what to expect of the elections, he opted for basic black and white. I’m fine with that. It’s tV. But in the or, where doctors and nurses are dealing with life or death, it should be different. adams’ company offers a barcode technology that may not be foolproof, but it seems to provide a better chance of accuracy. as adams says, the supermarkets use this technology and so does the guy on the loading dock. Why not the or? It’s occurred to me that adams is a cheerleader for his company and his product. you’d expect that from a ceo, and I’m not here to promote his product. there are other companies with similar products and claims. also, I know, and have been told many times, that you shouldn’t try to solve a problem just by throwing technology at it. or was that money? Well, either. enough cIos and It managers – physicians, too – have told me that it’s the process that has to be tackled first. It’s hard to disagree with that logic, especially in the Ver SinCe i taLKed www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with light of a new study by the University of Pennsylvania School of medicine that examined patient and medication barcoding. the study found that nurses scanning the barcode on medicaBernie Monegain, Editor tion or a patient’s ID bracelet overrode the technology for 4.2 percent of patients charted and for 10.3 percent of medications charted. consider this: In another recent study that looked into the effectiveness of barcode tracking for surgical sponges, atul Gawande, an endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, found that employing technology to count surgical sponges reduces the chance of errors by a factor of 3-to-1. “Leaving surgical sponges inside patients happens more often than people think and far more often than it should,” Gawande said. Between 3,000 and 5,000 cases of sponges left in the body are reported each year, “surgical nurses are charged with counting the sponges and ﬁnding any errant ones before the surgeon closes up. but, mistakes are made.” according to the study. they lead to complications, sometimes death, and almost always lawsuits. medicare has made it a “never event,” one for which it will not pay the hospital. more hospitals like the mayo clinic and other marquee hospitals are turning to technology to help remedy this problem, says adams. the problem may be more complex than the technology can solve. It’s up to hospital executives to do their due diligence. at least considering the possibility of applying technology seems the right thing to do. It might help get the specter of those bloody sponges out of my head. ■ MORE AT HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: MONEGAIN 0708 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Associate Editor molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci, nvitucci@himss.org For advertising contacts, see page 37 or visit http://www.healthcareitnews.com/ page.cms?pageId=3 Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF ● ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MARKETING Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com Nicole Carter, Manager, Audience Development nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com Jenna Perez, Coordinator, Marketing/Circulation jenna.perez@medtechpublishing.com READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 Email: cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com P.O. Box 9369, Lowell, MA 01853 The YGS Group T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@theygsgroup.com John Glaser, vice president, CIO, Partners HealthCare, Boston Denni McColm, CIO, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo. Jane Olds, COO, Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans Wes Rishel, vice president, Gartner, Inc. William Spooner, senior vice president, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego Paul Tang, vice president, CMIO, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California Steven Waldren, director, Center for Health IT, American Academy of Family Physicians REPRINTS CUSTOMER SERVICE EDITORIAL BOARD National survey of physicians failed to ask the right question who uses an aSP (application Service Provider) model eHr with e-Prescribing, and who maintains my own PHr (Personal Health record), I would like to offer some observations and criticisms to the paper “electronic Health records in ambulatory care – a national Survey of Physicians” (NEJM 359:1, July 3, 2008). my principle criticism is that the survey questionnaire did not adequately measure eHr use in the one patient with many providers paradigm and how effectively care is coordinated. this is particularly relevant if american healthcare is to transform to the medical Home model with the expectation that care can be more effectively and efficiently coordinated. the only metrics for interoperability were question 302b: “to what extent has the eHr system affected … communication with other providers” and question 305c S a generaL SUrgeOn Letter to the Editor: “How satisfied are you with …Sharing of medical information with hospitals and other health-care providers?” Lack of semantic interoperability was not listed as a choice in section 500 “Barriers to eHr adoption.” I also would have liked to have seen functionality and satisfaction with aSP model medical records measured. Going to a virtual eHr virtually eliminates capital cost as a barrier to adoption and minimizes the economic risk. Up until recently the eHr vendor community has marketed to two principal customers that have driven functional requirements and eHr development, specifically the generic primary care practice and large delivery systems such as hospitals and integrated clinics with their own It support, professional management and capital sources. Vendors attempt to distinguish themselves with unique and ever more complex proprietary features to make the deal and get the contract, not design to a common generic data model that facilitates interoperability with open standards emphasizing simplicity. Interoperability with other systems to support the information needs of our national population and even to support the information needs of individuals across time, geography, providers, and insurance plans had been out of scope. the survey tool from this study concentrated on a single physician managing their static population of existing patients. ■ MORE AT HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: LETTERS 0708 ● Neil Rouda Jack Beaudoin, John D. Payne Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT James G. Mhyre, MD, FACS Participating member of the HL-7 PHR functional model work group Evergreen Surgical Clinic Kirkland, Wash. Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne There’s more to dr. Mhyre’s letter. read it in its entirety at www.healthcareitnews.com. enter the eConnect code above. 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITnews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9509 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/page.cms?pageId=3 http://www.myHITN.com http://HealthcareITnews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9510 http://www.healthcareitnews.com

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Healthcare IT News - July 2008 Contents IT’s Financial Link eRx Power SOA Q&A Bent on Wireless Digital Switch IT Legacy Change Agent Panasonic 'Book' Taking a Shift Computer Types

Healthcare IT News - July 2008

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