Optimizing Patient Safety Through IT Solutions: A Case Study

David Mosher presented to SickKids Patient Safety Symposium a personal case study titled "Optimizing Patient Safety through IT Solutions" based on his experience as the father of a child with complex care needs and a parent volunteer on SickKids family council and as a health care expert tasked with large scale mobile health care initiatives.

David describes his daughter as complex medically both in needs and in treatment concerns.

She also has an extremely wide circle of care extending to more than 10 sites at more than 5 different institutions.

As a father and IT professional, David then offers research and thoughts as to how technology adoption will improve the quality of information at the heart of patient safety.

Quality Information is Critical to Patient Safety

• “The majority of the key informants believed that the fundamental issue in patient safety and primary care is patient care information.”
(Kinston-Reichers et al., Cdn Patient Safety Institute)

• “During 32% of ER visits, missing information delays care”
(Stiell et al., 2004)

Increased Patient Safety Risk Factors

Can my wife and I get the answers right when under extreme stress?

What if we’re not there?

Very complex medical history/rare condition

My child cannot provide verbal feedback

Outbursts increase clinician stress, distracts and interrupts communication

Electronic Health Records are part of the solution

An E.H.R. provides a cross-provider, trusted healthcare record

But……….

• Is the info accessible at the point of care?
• Does it slow down the treatment process in E.R.?
• Is the information used to its potential?

Next Generation Mobile Devices Overcome the Access Barrier

- Light
- 10 hour battery life
- Intuitive user interface
- High resolution
- Built in cameras
- WiFi and 3G/4G
- Secure (no patient data on the device)
- Fast application deployment

Mobile Device Adoption is an unstoppable force in Healthcare

Clinical adoption of mobile devices is rising

• 72% of US Physicians use smartphones (Manhattan Research 2010)
• 52% look up patient information several times a day (Manhattan Research 2010)
• 50% of US physicians will have iPads by 2012 (Chilmark Research)
• 70% of Healthcare respondents plan to buy an iPad or similar device in the next year (HIMSS/BoxTone 2010 CompTIA 2010)
• 86% of Physicians with smartphones are interested in accessing EMR data by them (PwC 2010)

Conclusion

• The right information being available at the right time is crucial to patient safety

• E.H.R.s must be combined with mobile devices to have a meaningful impact

• IT can reduce the likelihood of errors that outside factors could introduce

David, thanks for sharing your presentation with us and for contributing to patient safety and family centered care at SickKids.