RSSKRMC’s ongoing project to improve patient safety
Jul 16
HealthWise Comments Off
According to a HealthGrades report released in 2008, nearly 240,000 people died nationwide, from 2004 to 2006, because of medical errors. This alarming fact is just one reason that Kingman Regional Medical Center has been rolling out automated systems over the last few years. The purpose of these systems is to provide better communication among healthcare professionals, which in turn helps ensure that our patients can be cared for more quickly and safely.
These systems have been in place in areas such as our emergency, pharmacy, lab, and radiology departments for a while now. They allow your doctor to quickly assess X-rays, prescribe medicines, and control dosages in a way that speeds up drug delivery time and helps guard against accidental drug over- or underdoses.
Because of the success of these systems, KRMC is beginning the next phase — a three-year project to more fully integrate automation and accident-prevention into all parts of patient care, from admission to treatment to discharge. And since the technology uses a standardized format, your medical records will be easily available to other doctors and in other hospitals — and those hospitals will be able to share information with KRMC.
In the future, we’ll be seeing even more improvements such as these:
Electronic Medical Records
Charts, lab reports, medications, and other information will be kept on computers in a secure digital format. These records will combine with X-rays, CT scans, and other imaging results to provide easy access to updated information about any patient. This helps you doctor see the “big picture†and make better decisions for your healthcare.
Electronic Provider Orders
Prescriptions, tests, and so on will be requested digitally, and those requests will automatically be checked against your health history. If there’s a possibility of conflict (such as two different drugs interacting with each other), your doctor will be warned. This will help prevent medication errors. Also, since the dosage requests will be sent digitally, there’s much less chance of too much (or too little) medication being administered due to hard-to-read handwriting or faxes.
Hospital Medication Management
This system helps ensure that you get just the right amount of drugs at just the right time — not too much, not too little, and not too soon or too late. It also helps guarantee that the drug being given is what was ordered by your doctor.
All these systems communicate with one another, so there’s much less chance of medical errors taking place. Better still, your doctor will always have your medical records immediately available — you won’t have to make sure to pick up a copy of your lab reports or X-rays before going in for a check-up. Even if you’re visiting a specialist, you won’t have to worry about taking your records along with you.
We’re pleased to be doing these things to improve patient healthcare and safety — your healthcare and safety — and as we continue making changes to our systems, we’ll print updates in HealthWise and on the KRMC Journal at azkrmc.com/blog.
