Comprehensive IT Solution for Quality & Patient Safety
In 2004, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (Children's), Georgia Tech's Health Systems Institute (HSI) and the Center for Interactive Systems Engineering (CISE), and the Emory University Center on Health Outcomes and Quality were awarded a grant to study health information technologies (HIT) implemented to improve patient safety and quality. This collaborative research examines the effect that key components of an electronic medical record have on operations at Children's. These components include: an inpatient Pharmacy system, electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR), and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE). Because Children's is implementing these systems using a phased approach, the research will measure the incremental impact each component has at Children's.
Georgia Tech's HSI is leading research teams that are examining the affect each technology has on efficiency of first dose medication orders, staff perceptions on patient safety, and staff acceptance of the technology. HSI is also leading usability assessments of each technology component and providing expertise on work modeling & redesign to ensure that the implemented technologies are well integrated with the clinical processes they are intended to support. We are . also collaborating with researchers from Children's and Emory to examine the affect of these technologies on adverse drug events (ADE's) and to conduct a qualitative assessment of the implementation process to identify facilitators and barriers to system adoption.
The results of this research will be improved knowledge of the impact these systems have on quality and patient safety. In addition, implementation best practices identified through this research can be applied to future systems implementations to ensure that they achieve significant improvements in quality and patient safety.
Sponsor: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)