Medication errors information technology

Bates, D.W. Using information technology to reduce rates of medication errors in hospitals. BMJ 2000, 320,... 

Advances in technology can facilitate the generation and transfer of patient documentation. As more pharmacies use the Internet as a means of communication, information can be transferred quickly and accurately over greater distances. Handheld computers and specialty software allow health care practitioners to document information in an electronic format that can be transformed immediately for rapid transfer to others. Reports in the literature have described methods to assess pharmacist interventions related to medication errors, the use of computer-based systems, and recently, the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in specific patient care areas. Many of these documentation systems tend to be individualized apphcations in which the transfer of data to other providers is not possible or quite limited. Often these systems focus on the generation of reports for workload analysis or accreditation purposes. 

REPRODUCED FROM BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, DAVID W BATES. "USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE RATES OF MEDICATION ERRORS IN HOSPITALS". 320, NO. 7237, [788-791], 2000, WITH PERMISSION FROM BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP LTD.)... 

Using information technology to reduce medication errors... 

Ash, J.S., Berg, M. and Coiera, B. (2004) Some unintended consequences of information technology in healthcare the nature of patient care information system-related errors. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 11, 104—112. 

The two items belonging to the remote patient monitoring classification are telemedicine and telehealth. Finally, the pattern identification (to learn from errors and systems influences on adverse events) classification includes items such as electronic medical records and workload and staffing data systems. Additional information on technology commonly used by the nursing profession is available in Ref. [4]. 

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