Information Technology Reducing Medical Errors - Research Paper Example

Information Technology Reducing Medical Errors INTRODUCTION Information and Communications Technology is an essential part of every human being life in the present world. From the first blink of a human eye in the morning to the last before he retires into his bed humans are encapsulated into a life that belongs to a high-tech society that is socially bound via virtual social connections. This society that humans currently belong to is pretty advanced as compared to its contemporary times as technologically advanced communication means are inevitable in it. These technology changes have done wonders when the matter comes to medicine. Medicine is the fact of life which is indispensible. It exists till even a single living being exists in this world. Technological changes in present day world have changed the medical technology upside down. Medical procedures that used to take hours in completion now get within no time at all. Technology has enabled the creation of such sophisticated weapons that by virtue of them medical treatments have become very less painful and timely. The patients suffer very less and the healer also gets satisfied at the exemplary means by which he gets to perform his medical healing procedures. This study is aimed at highlighting a few such facts that have assisted in the betterment of medical treatments by virtue of improvements in technology. For the said purpose three journal papers have been held under observation. The published papers highlight how technology has helped in assisting the improvements of medical technology. Following are the discussions as per the reviewed papers. LITERATURE REVIEW OF FIRST PAPER: TITLE OF PAPER: “Technology’s Impact on Reducing Medication Errors.” By Patsy Sublett, M.S.N., R.N.-C. This paper focuses the Danville Regional Medical Centre’s research. The use of technology is not new I the medical centre. Nurses have used traditional and wireless computer technology on the site of the medical case to enable the improvement of assessment, ease of maintenance of timely medical records, and increased patient safety. The medical centre aims and improving efficiency of their healing processes. This involves re-engineering of the medicines and the medical processes being used. The institute keeps this as the main aim to update the latest information technology trends into the administration of its medication. As an effort in the continuation of this a medical system based on the latest technology principles has been embedded. This system uses the help of information technology to support the entire mechanism of ordering and delivering medications. Siemens medical administration bar code facility was then implemented in the institute for the first time. Being implemented as a test case, the Siemens Med Administration Check was an application that enabled the nurses to record and verified medical administration at the scene of the case. The technologically advanced device contained the capability of being wireless and along with it could access all medical records of the patients that were mounted on a stand that could be wheeled at the site of the patient. It could also act like a bar code scanner. The working of the device is such that it grants login into its system when the bar code on the badge of the nurse is scanned. The next screen that emerges shows the medication work list that has been prescribed to the patient by the physician/medical consultant. The medicine that is to be physically administered is scanned by scanning its bar code into the system. If it matches with the one already in the systems’ list. Similar checks are done with the dose, route, and the time of the dosage. if all four parameters get verified the final check is done. This final check involves scanning of the bar code of the patient by scanning the bar code printed on his wrist band. If this matches then all the five checks get cleared and the patient can be administered the medication intended. However if any of the five checks are not verified a red light emerges restricting even the slightest human error that can be made when administering medicines to a patient. This, in turn prevents severe adverse effects such as fatal errors. In the case that the five checks are cleared the medicine is checked and charged in the interactive system. This saves the medical service provider from a lot of hassle that paper documentation would have caused also reducing the time lapse and enabling that time to be spent in providing health care to the patient. The results of the implementation proved to be a sigh of relief and most importantly reduced medical errors immensely. Other technologically advanced systems that were embedded into the DRMC institute were online drug inquiry system, laboratory, and the system alerts that tell the nurse if the medication being administered to a patient is being done earlier than its due time. LITERATURE REVIEW OF SECOND PAPER: TITLE OF PAPER: “Evaluating the Impact of Information Technology on Medication Errors: A Simulation” James G. Anderson, PhD, Stephen J. Jay, MD, Marilyn Anderson, BA, and Thaddeus J. Hunt, BA This paper highlights the several ways in which information technology can be used to help the science of medicine. It mentions that the physician can be relieved of a lot of manual distress by automated systems in which the consultant enters his prescription and also the medicines prescribed by him to the patient. Moreover decision support at the prescription stage is of integral importance. Other technologically advanced uses involve unit dosing systems and the bar coding of medications just to name a few uses! In order to assess the reduction of medical errors by the embedding of technologically advanced practices a simulation model was created that evaluated the implementation of unit dosing and bar code reading of medicines. Deploying initial estimates the simulation model showed that the use of a bar code reader reduced the percentage of medical error by 50% in the first year and then further more in the next year a decrease of 70% was observed. Similarly by entering initial estimated parameters the efficiency of a unit dosage system was simulated. Unit dosage systems are used to provide medicines from a hospital’s pharmacy in a ready to administer form. This means that the medicines are just in the right potency and in the right proportion at the right time in line with the patient information entered into the hospital’s interactive medical system by the medical practitioner. The results showed that this practice reduced the rate of errors by 80 %. Repeated statistics pertaining to the implementation of these systems into real world scenarios showed that the percentage of reduction of errors reduced for both the said technologies in real world. The percentage of errors reduced now became 40% and 30% for unit dosage and bar code reading respectively. LITERATURE REVIEW OF THIRD PAPER: TITLE OF PAPER: Using information technology to reduce rates of medication errors in hospitals David W Bates This paper focuses on the study that errors due to erroneous administration of drugs have been incidental and are sometimes overlooked. The study reveals that about 28% to 56% of the medical errors caused are preventable. The harsh fact that is highlighted is that despite the use of medical technology in hospitals, the safety of the procedure of administering drugs to patients is not highlighted on a large scale. Thus, very little data is available regarding the safety of giving of drugs. The paper under discussion reveals that the decision support systems that have specifically been designed for physicians as well as the physician’s order entry system have proven to be causes of reduction of errors in drug administration. Information technology has assisted medicine by promoting the use of robots that perform the task of filling in prescriptions, bar code drug readers computerized molding of the medical administration record into computerized form enabling its embedding into different medical systems. The future of the medically advanced systems is seen as to be embedding the current characteristics as well others that would advance with every advancement in the information and communications technology. REFERENCES Sublett P., (November 2002). Technology’s impact on reducing medication errors. Health management technology. Retrieved from: www.healthmgttech.com Anderson G. J., Jay, J. S., Anderson M., Hunt J. T., (May-June 2003).Evaluating the impact of information technology on medication errors: a simulation. 10(3). Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC342060/ Bates, W. B. (March 18 2000)Using information technology to reduce rates of medication errors in hospitals. BMJ, 320(7237), Retrieved from: http://www.bmj.com/content/320/7237/788.full Read More