The number of medical mistakes was cut in half the year after the hospital introduced the a web-based software communication tool and taught employees how to use it, reports Kaiser Health News.
“This shows that [an electronic patient record] can help mitigate medical error,” said Dr. Stephanie Mueller, the study’s main author and an associate physician in primary care and general internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Researchers analyzed the effect of a web-based tool that uses patient medical records to enhance communication during the patient handoff. It scans a patient’s electronic medical record for the information that doctors and other health workers need to know most. Then it automatically pulls that information into a separate page that’s been designed to highlight those essential details.
To evaluate the tool, the researchers surveyed residents at the end of their shifts who worked “nightfloat” — midnight to 7 a.m. — and “twilight” — 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. They checked for possible medical errors, and then rated those errors in terms of how avoidable they were. The survey started in November 2012 in advance of the tool’s February 2013 introduction, and then compared the level of error that took place before the tool was being used with those that occurred in the year that followed. Overall, the survey examined more than 5,000 patient cases.
The result: The number of medical mistakes was cut in half the year after the hospital introduced the software tool and taught employees how to use it. There were 77 errors identified between November 2012 and February 2013, compared with 45 in the following year.
