Medical Errors Reduction Through Information Technology

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Medical Errors in Hospital Environments
Informational Technology and Its Benefits
Issues of Medical Information Technology
Conclusion
References

Abstract

Medical errors may be extremely dangerous if they are not corrected in time. Inaccurate prescriptions or procedures may cause harm to the patient and should not be permitted. They may occur due to overwork and burnout of the staff. However, information technology may be able to prevent them, as well as provide additional benefits to the hospital. This paper covers the reasons behind errors, the benefits of informational technology, as well as its possible downsides. After reviewing the available studies on the topic, the results show that the benefits of informational systems outweigh the possible negative aspects.

Introduction

Medical errors can lead to grave consequences for patients. They may create a situation where a patient is prescribed ineffective or even harmful medication for their condition or instances where patient’s allergies are not considered before the choice of procedure. This is the primary motivation for research. Generally, such errors are the result of hospital staff accidentally making mistakes in medical forms or overlooking information in patient’s files. However, through the introduction of information technology into hospitals, this issue may be decreased due to the ease of use that computers and electronic records provide. The goal of this research is to show that information technology may reduce the frequency of medical errors. This paper will provide an overview of this issue, information technology, and how it may reduce the number of medical records.

Medical Errors in Hospital Environments

There is a variety of reasons for why medical errors may occur. One of the possible reasons behind errors is burnout that nurses and other hospital staff may experience. Studies have shown that in situations of understaffing or overwork, people are more prone to make errors in their work. This is especially likely in medical environments that do not utilize information technology due to the increased reliance on human input. Writing a medical document by hand requires time that is often quite limited in cases of understaffing. While trying to fill in all the required information quickly, a nurse may make an error, and there would not be any way to check and correct it on the fly. What is even more dangerous is that the error may not be found in time and the patient’s health may be negatively affected (Garrouste-Orgeas, Flaatten, & Moreno, 2016).

Errors may also occur due to the inexperience of the medical staff. While educational facilities provide both theoretical and practical information to medical students, they cannot provide experience. In the majority of cases, a careful novice staff member should not be prone to making mistakes, but there may be procedures, which require additional expertise and should not be attempted without experience (Dyrbye et al., 2014). Unfortunately, it is not always possible to assign a more senior member of staff to mentor novice medical workers, which leads to additional medical errors.

Informational Technology and Its Benefits

While informational technology such as computers and databases was introduced into the medical field decades ago, their proliferation through hospitals and other medical facilities has been a long and at times difficult process. For the majority of hospitals, the primary example of information technology is the introduction of electronic hospital records. All hospitals keep a lot of documents on their current and past patients in massive physical archives. For older facilities, those archives may be in a poor state and often too large to find information quickly. This issue could lead to lost documents or excessive waiting times for patients. Electronic health records allow for much more optimal management of medical documents (Payton, 2017). To access even the oldest medical information, an operator only needs to search, and in seconds it appears on the screen (Gellert, Ramirez, & Webster, 2015). The registration process for new patients is also much faster as any typos, or other errors can be corrected without rewriting the form. Studies on this subject have already shown that implementation of electronic hospital records leads to drastic improvements in waiting times for patients, reduction of hospital errors, and even patient satisfaction (Jones, Rudin, Perry, & Shekelle, 2014).

Another benefit of information technology in medical settings is in its ability to warn the medical staff of unsafe or incorrect procedures during their input. Some medical systems include failsafe capabilities that prevent staff members from selecting inappropriate procedures if the medical care of the patient contains appropriate precautions (Grass, Heckel, Puddu, Paunescu, & Stark, 2015). While these settings may be overridden by the staff in emergencies, they still may be able to prevent medical errors in cases where burnout and overwork lead staff members to operate in a more rushed manner.

Issues of Medical Information Technology

Unfortunately, information technology is not capable of resolving all of the medical errors, and in some cases, it may cause them. Informational technology systems may be simple to operate, but their creation involves highly sophisticated coding expertise that is not available to the majority of the hospital staff. If there is a glitch or any other technical malfunction in the database, it may not be fixed without involving specialized IT staff (Bates et al., 2001). Before such a glitch is identified, it may lead to incorrect information being displayed for the medical workers, as well as the corruption of database data and a variety of other negative outcomes. In recent years, viruses and hacking attacks have increased in frequency, and hospital systems are a prime target due to their importance (McCann, 2014).

Additionally, even with a perfectly functioning system burnout may lead to medical errors due to its more systematic nature. However, the danger from the errors may be reduced as the information may be checked again and swiftly corrected before any prescription or procedure takes place.

Even after considering the possible issues with informational technology, they examined studies show its clear benefits for the reduction of medical errors in hospitals. If a medical facility does not yet have an electronic system operational, it should be recommended, as its benefits outweigh its downsides. The issue of medical errors continues to hurt the medical industry, hospital staff, and patients which makes it one of the primary concerns for medical facilities.

Conclusion

Medical errors are a serious issue for many hospitals, but they may be reduced in frequency with the implementation of information technology. Burnout and understaffing often lead to medical errors from the exhaustion of the staff. Solutions such as electronic hospital records allow such errors to be minimized due to ease of use and prevention measures built into their systems. However, several issues with the system may occur, which prevents it from being a perfect solution. Nevertheless, the examined research shows that benefits outweigh the possible faults in such systems.

References

Bates, D. W., Cohen, M., Leape, L. L., Overhage, J. M., Shabot, M. M., & Sheridan, T. (2001). Reducing the frequency of errors in medicine using information technology. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 8(4), 299–308.

Dyrbye, L. N., West, C. P., Satele, D., Boone, S., Tan, L., Sloan, J., & Shanafelt, T. D. (2014). Burnout among U.S. medical students, residents, and early career physicians relative to the general U.S. population:Academic Medicine, 89(3), 443–451. Web.

Garrouste-Orgeas, M., Flaatten, H., & Moreno, R. (2016). Understanding medical errors and adverse events in ICU patients.Intensive Care Medicine, 42(1), 107–109. Web.

Gellert, G. A., Ramirez, R., & Webster, S. L. (2015). The rise of the medical scribe industry: Implications for the advancement of electronic health records.JAMA, 313(13), 1315–1316. Web.

Grass, R. N., Heckel, R., Puddu, M., Paunescu, D., & Stark, W. J. (2015). Robust chemical preservation of digital information on DNA in Silica with error-correcting codes. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 54(8), 2552–2555. Web.

Jones, S. S., Rudin, R. S., Perry, T., & Shekelle, P. G. (2014). Health information technology: An updated systematic review with a focus on meaningful use.Annals of Internal Medicine, 160(1), 48–54. Web.

McCann, E. (2014). Deaths by medical mistakes hit records. Web.

Payton, A. (2017). Medical errors and the laboratory: How healthcare organizations are improving rates and improving patient care. Integrated Studies, 56, 1–13.

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