Washington Technology reports that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a guide for meeting HIPAA security standards, set to go into effect April 21, 2005. Given the brief period before the law goes into effect, one would think this guide would be of little use. However, this study reports that as of […]
I've mentioned before that reducing avoidable admissions can have an impact on patient flow. Here is a story about a new wireless monitoring system developed in Europe. This new system starts with a variety of wireless sensors that can be attached to the patient. The sensors communicate via a wireless link with a mobile phone […]
Grand Rounds, a weekly wrap up of medical bloggers is up at Over My Med Body. Go check it out! This site is mentioned in the same breath as Jennifer Aniston…
In an apparent medical device analog to the recent dust up about CPOE, this study confirms that its not what you have, its how you use it.
Rothschild, Keohane, et al., conclude that smart infusion pumps can detect intravenous medication errors and adverse drug events. However, “We found no measurable impact on the serious medication error rate, […]
Pat Ramming, manager of the Throughput department at Seton (see this post) was gracious enough to take the time to provide us with some additional background on their efforts at Seton:
I was curious how they selected the target areas for their patient flow improvement initiative. They spent more than a year on this project, starting […]
Every hospital has them. Frequent fliers. These are the patients with chronic disease (not the one's looking for pain medication) who are admitted once, twice, or more often a year. They come in, get a tune up and go back home until the next tune up. The patients I'm referring to are not ER frequent fliers […]
There are many methods for improving patient flow. One broad category represents organizational and procedural changes that can streamline care. One common approach is to create a holding area for patients awaiting admission as an alternative to boarding patients in hall ways. Called by various names (I like Express Admissions Unit myself), these areas complete […]
Here's a nice story that describes how Seton Medical Center in Austin improved their patient flow. They were experiencing the usual problems, ED diverts, boarding patients overnight because rooms were unavailable, and admitting physician compaints about delays and unavailable beds.
To improve patient flow, the hospital staff divided into several teams, focusingon four key areas: ED […]
In a continuation of a previous post, I've found 2 more sites that reflect emergency department overcrowding and diversions in real or near-real time. The first is MIEMSS, the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems. The far left column on the bottom half of their site has a section titled CHATS (for County Hospital Alerts […]
This is a huge step in medical device security, and the first of its kind. Read about it here, and if you're asking, “what's the big deal,” read on…
Many medical devices are built on general purpose computing platforms. Holter systems, PACS, and central stations are obvious examples, but many seemingly “embedded systems” are also using general […]
