Blog spotlight: Understanding HIT nationally and on the local front lines

Patient Safety Monitor Alert

January 25, 2012

Editor's note: Columnist Catherine Hinz, MHA, works at PatientSafe Solutions, Inc. Previously, she served as the patient lead at HealthEast Care System in St. Paul, MN, worked for seven years as an ED health unit coordinator, and has completed a patient safety internship with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The following is an excerpt from the January 2012 issue of Patient Safety Monitor Journal.

In the past couple of months, there have been numerous publications around health information technology (HIT) and patient safety. In November 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report, Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care. Right on its heels, the ECRI Institute released its top 10 list of technologies¹ posing hazards to healthcare delivery. The list exposed dangerous medical devices and other technology systems. It was inclusive of everything from surgical fires to radiation therapy exposure risks. Through these reports and a variety of other publications in recent months, one of the primary take-home messages is clear: It is exceedingly difficult to prioritize where attention should be focused given the breadth and scope of HIT and its potential effects on patient safety and care delivery.

The work of the IOM was particularly interesting as its charge was threefold: summarize the existing knowledge of the effects of HIT on patient safety, make recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services regarding specific actions that federal agencies should take to maximize safety, and make recommendations concerning how private actors can promote the safety of HIT-assisted care.² The confluence of those goals came down to understanding the broader design of a safe system, of which HIT is a component part. Indeed, after our patients and caregivers, HIT could be the most significant part of care delivery going forward; it is permeating almost every aspect of the care delivery process.