Rural ED Doctors Make Fewer Errors When Using Telehealth

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that physicians in rural emergency departments made fewer medication administration errors when they consulted with a pediatric critical care specialist via telemedicine technology than when they consulted with a specialist over the phone or not at all.  More

Involving patients in nurses' shift change improves outcomes, prevents errors

When incoming and outgoing nurses actively involve their patients in shift changes--a practice known as bedside handover--it can reduce medical errors and improve outcomes and patient experience, according to a new study published in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality.

No docs on staff, no ER but happy hospital patients

TriHealth Evendale Hospital in Cincinnati doesn't have an emergency room or any doctors on its staff. Normal business hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Yet month after month, the 29-bed hospital consistently scores high marks for patient satisfaction, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier.   FierceHealthcare

Healthcare on the move: Four UK NHS mobility deployments

The use of smartphones and tablet computers is delivering tremendous benefits in healthcare but comes with some challenges, whether mobile devices are issued by the organisation or are owned by employees:

• To secure the devices and data against loss or theft;
• To maintain compliance with internal and external security and confidentiality mandates, especially with respect to Patient Identifiable Data;
• To simplify initial provisioning and on-going configuration - ensuring the users have immediate access to their data and apps, especially when devices are shared between users.

This report shows how the ICT teams of four NHS organisations are using MobileIron Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions to manage mobile device proliferation, including smartphones, tablets, mobile application usage, and demands from employees for greater mobility; and enabling user-driven innovation while maintaining security over their mobile estates.

Download the whitepaper

Telehealth is key in healthcare future

Healthcare IT News, 11/21/2013

Telehealth has transformed the way healthcare services are accessed and provided. Virtual consultation and remote diagnosis offer incredible potential to shape the surgery of the future and increase access to specialist services from within the primary care system. In the UK, this technology could significantly reduce the burden on secondary healthcare provision. Telehealth could see the complete transformation of primary care, for example, with the creation of remote diagnosis and observation rooms, allowing patients to be diagnosed via video link and subsequently seen remotely by specialists. Click here to access full text  MDLinx Nursing

Alarm Fatigue Still Leading to Dangerous Overrides

A recent study by Boston-based Partners HealthCare shows that the problem of alarm-fatigued clinicians overriding clinical decision support system alarms that may be legitimate persists, iHealthBeat reports.

The web site reports researchers analyzed more than 157,000 CDS alerts involving more than two million medication orders and 1,718 outpatient providers and found that 52.6 percent of the alerts were overridden. Further, they found that 53 percent of those overridden alerts were clinically appropriate — meaning that the particular drug combinations or patient factors, if overlooked, had the potential to cause patient harm.
For the full story, click here.

EHRs Can Impair the Patient Relationship

Medscape Nurses: Some doctors see electronic health records (EHRs) as a giant headache and a barrier to good relationships with patients, whereas others are convinced that it can assist in efficiency and accuracy and still allow doctors to relate well with their patients. Medscape's recent article, Do Your EHR Manners Turn Patients Off?, provided a springboard for doctors to air their strong reactions to this challenging issue...."Documentation has become more important than human interaction. We are becoming more and more like the machines that we use, or rather, the machines that use us."More

EHRs can't do everything

Healthcare IT News, 11/18/2013

Like many other industries, healthcare is becoming more consumer–focused. As Eric Wicklund and Mike Miliard have recently documented for Healthcare IT News, patients and doctors alike have spoken out against EHR solutions for interfering with rather than facilitating doctor–patient interactions. While thorough data collection and analysis, where EHRs offer great value, feeds research at the population level, it seems that the apparent failure of current EHRs to accommodate patients as unique cases has sparked this shift in attitude in the health IT industry. More

New Era in Long-Term-Care Begins

john Knox Village in Pompano Beach is building the first "Green House" in Florida and will build another next year in Jacksonville. It transforms the typical nursing home into a cluster of home-like settings for small numbers of patients. More

Mobile health apps – opportunity for patients and doctors to co-create the evidence

Mobile health apps – opportunity for patients and doctors to... healthpopuli.com

There are thousands of downloadable apps that people can use that touch on health. But among the 40,000+ mobile health apps available in iTunes, which most effectively drive health and efficient care?

To answer that question, the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics analyzed 43,689 health, fitness and medical apps in the Apple iTunes store as of June 2013. These split into what IMS categorized as 23,682 “genuine” health care apps, and 20,007 falling into miscellaneous categories such as product-specific apps, fashion and beauty, fertility, veterinary, and apps with “gimmicks” (IMS’s word) with no obvious health benefit.  More

Infographic: Population Health Management

Another hot topic, intensively discussed in the healthcare community: Population Health Management(PHM). This HIN Infographic shows the benchmarks of their study. It’s no surprise to read the conclusion that successful PHM starts with the data and the data analysis. 

Here is one of many ways to improve medication adherence and the PHM approach; the PICO medication adherence support system….

 

Source: HIN

15 apps from the Department of Veterans Affairs

The programs, developed with technology backed by the National Science Foundation, combines web-based peer support with self-help therapy and offers veterans access to new mental health resources remotely. 

The programs will be available for free on the web into 2014, according to the company.
The VA has been producing mobile health apps for iPads and iPhones since for many years now, many of which have had a mental health focus. A year after the VA first started launching apps, they announced a pilot for family caregivers to receive iPads loaded with apps created by the VA to test before they create a special app store for veterans.  More

Better Access Through Virtual Visits

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the November 6 issue of the Health Care Innovations Exchange (http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov).

• The featured Innovations describe three programs that used virtual visits to increase patient access to health care. The programs include one in which a solo practitioner provided year-round, 24-hour-a-day access to care for her patients through liberal use of “virtual” or e-mail visits and telephone calls; another that used an online clinic to diagnose and treat minor health problems with a protocol-based treatment plan; and one that allowed patients with skin conditions to submit their medical history and photographs through secure, Web-based applications for review by a dermatologist.
• The featured QualityTools include a Web site that offers resources on using technology to assist care coordination and improve the independence of older adults, a guide for developing a remote diabetic retinopathy screening program, and a toolkit for developing telehealth activities.
• To access more innovation profiles and tools related to virtual visits and telehealth, go to http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/innovations_qualitytools.aspx?categoryID=54553&taxonomyID=54617.

Study finds surgical residents sour on iPad for clinical, educational use

“Though not addressed by this study, disparity may exist due to differences in clinical rounding styles as well as the working life of medical vs. procedural-based residents with different emphasis on data use and interpretation,” the researchers wrote.

Overall, about 40 percent of respondents indicated the iPad facilitated better patient care, though medical residents were twice as likely as surgical residents to say so.

The iPad fared significantly better as a reference tool.  More

New CMS Tool Facilitates Users' Access to Federal Health Data

CMS has made available to researchers a new online tool that allows registered users to access and manipulate federal health care data from a secure desktop computer. CMS said the tool will help eliminate long wait times for data requests and provide better access to up-to-date information at a lower cost. Modern Healthcare's "Vital Signs," Government Health IT.  More

Improving Care for Those with Complex Healthcare needs Through HIT

A new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that providing patients and clinicians with information and support using health IT (HIT) was effective in improving outcomes and quality. “Findings and Lessons from the Improving Management of Individuals with Complex Health Care Needs Through Health IT Grant Initiative” documents the findings of more than 10 research projects that investigated how health IT applications can support shared-decisionmaking, communication during care transitions, and facilitate secure exchange of information across multiple settings of care. Multiple studies showed positive impacts on process, intermediate, health, and economic outcomes.

To access the report, select: http://healthit.ahrq.gov/asqmcpreport (PDF, 3 MB).

mHealth improves risk profile in cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes patients

A provisional article published in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Public Health suggests that mHealth technology supporting exercise prescription interventions can be effective.

The findings are based on a Canadian study of 149 adults with at least two metabolic syndrome risk factors, one group using the intervention and one control group.
"Mobile health technologies have proved to be a beneficial tool to achieve blood pressure and blood glucose control in patients with diabetes,"....More

Free one-year program for type 2 diabetics to leverage text messaging

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is offering a free 12-month mHealth program to support individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, according to an announcement.
Called Living With Type 2 Diabetes, the year-long program will provide information and offer free guidance at regular intervals to help people learn how to manage the disease. According to the ADA, approximately 26 million children and adults have diabetes in the United States, of which nearly 95 percent have type 2 diabetes.  More

Interactive Computer Program Helps Boost Depression Treatment

A new study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that patients are more likely to ask for information or receive treatment for depression when they view a tailored, interactive computer program about the condition before an appointment with their doctor. Medical News Today. More

Alarm Fatigue Tops ECRI's List of Top 10 Health Technology Hazards

An ECRI Institute report finds that alarm fatigue is the biggest health care technology hazard facing hospitals. Other hazards include data integrity failures in electronic health record systems, infusion pump medication errors and robotic surgery complications. Healthcare IT News et al. 

In an April 2013 Sentinel Event Alert, the Joint Commission cited 98 alarm-related events over a three-year period, with 80 of those events resulting in death and 13 in permanent loss of function. The organization subsequently issued a National Patient Safety Goal for 2014 to compel healthcare providers to address alarm hazards. ECRI Institute has developed resources and tools to help providers meet the provisions of this new goal.

E-Health Tools Could Decrease In-Person Doctor Visits, Study Finds

Based on an analysis of recent trends in health IT and a review of the scientific literature, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Commonwealth Fund estimate that in-person patient visits will decrease as community-based physician offices adopt electronic health record systems. CNET, Health Affairs. More

Patient portals pose new security issues

As healthcare facilities launch their own patient portals, technology is only the first step. Administrators are learning that decisions need to be made on everything from patient login protocols to support for patient record revisions. HIPAA regulations, always a primary concern when patient records are involved...More

Navigators and Assisters

http://www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=101

A new Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation discusses the challenges facing so-called navigators and assisters as they help consumers understand and select health insurance policies from the Affordable Care Act's new exchanges, or Marketplaces. The enrollment process is complex, and navigators and assisters have been trained to both enroll people and assist consumers with subsidy applications. However, some critics of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have raised concerns about insufficient training and privacy safeguards.

Some of the topics covered in this brief include:

• What's the background? The brief outlines the functions of navigators and assisters, who provide one-on-one help by explaining how the Marketplace and its federal premium subsidies work.
  
• What's the debate?
• What's next?

Health Care Providers Override More Than Half of E-Rx Alerts

A study published this week finds that health care providers override more than half of clinical decision support alerts when using electronic prescribing systems. According to the study, only 53% of those overrides are medically appropriate. FierceHealthIT, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.More