Barcoding and Patient Context

How a vendor implements patient context can have a big impact on usability and customer acceptance.

Pressure to Increase Hospital Patient Safety Reporting Grows

Washington state governor, Christine Gregoire, has proposed legislation mandating hospital reporting of all adverse events. From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:
[…] Gregoire said she expects full public access to hospitals’ track
records to be done without extra cost to the state treasury. She said
she will introduce legislation giving consumers information about
“adverse events,” such as infections or patient […]

Effect of Environmental Design on Reducing Nursing and Medication Errors

Are you at a hospital that is planning new construction or renovation? Are you a vendor with a product or service that’s used at the point of care in hospitals? You should check out the latest survey from The Center for Healthcare Design, the Effect of Environmental Design on Reducing Nursing Errors in Acute Care […]

The Value of Unique Device Identification

Is there a need to better track the use of medical devices? You bet. Besides tracking implantables for post market surveillance and recalls, tracking medical devices used at the point of care can reduce the risk of infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA) through physical contact and cross contamination. There are no national hospital reporting […]

Thoughts on RFID in Hospitals

Yesterday I noted that the Biomed Listserv has moved to new digs. In addition to a new hosting service, there is a message limit of 450 words - sadly, only enough for one or two points for me. I learned about this limit when my message bounced, so I've posted it here.
James asked about RFID […]

Day 2 Keynote: John Rushby on Accidental Systems

Self proclaimed the, “oldest guy with a computer science degree,” John Rushby with SRI International started the second day with a presentation on Accidental Systems. Using aviation as a model, Rushby discussed interactive complexity and system failures. Exploring the causes of accidents, Rushby noted, “that sufficiently complex systems can produce accidents without a simple cause.” […]

Baxter Recall Problems Mount

Baxter just can't seem to get a break. Just 4 months after their Colleague pump comes off ship hold (more here), Baxter and the FDA announce new recalls.
The FDA upgraded Baxter's recall of the 3 channel Colleague pump to a Class I recall (the most serious) for a software bug. Here's Baxter's press release and […]

Healthcare Unbound 2007 Kicks Off

Jay Srini, VP, Emerging Technologies, UPMC and Vince Kuraitis, Principal, Better Health Technologies, opened the conference.
Srini provided an update on the demographic tsunami represented by the aging population. Statistics show health care prevention has not worked. Over the last 10 years there has been a steady increase in obesity and diabetes. This is […]

CDC Publishes Latest Emergency Department Summar for 2005

FierceHealthIT notes a new CDC study on ED overcrowding - it's getting worse.

Emergency department visits hit a new high in 2005, with more than
115 million visits, says new research from the CDC. That's a jump of
five million visits over the previous year, and a substantial 20
percent increase over 10 years.
Over the same time period, […]

More Hospitals Lift Cell Phone Bans

According to a survey by CHIME, more hospitals are reducing restrictions on cell phones.

Twenty-three
percent of the 185 survey respondents reported their organization has
lifted all restrictions on mobile phone use, up 5.5% from a similar
survey conducted by the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based organization in 2004.
Only 11 respondents, or 6%, indicated that cell phone use is entirely
prohibited at […]