The American journal of managed care
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The emergence of information technology in healthcare holds the promise to transform the industry through the creation of highly reliable information exchange. These same technologies have a central role in the patient safety movement. Organizations that wish to deliver safe and high-quality healthcare will only be successful if they plan, develop, and use health information systems with the principles of high-performing organizations in mind. We discuss the current state of health information technology in the patient safety movement, how this technology can contribute to high organizational performance, and some caveats.
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To identify the optimal target of a future intervention to improve physician decision making in trauma triage. ⋯ Even a minor investment in changing decision making in trauma triage could greatly improve quality of care. The optimal intervention depends on the characteristics of the individual trauma systems.
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To determine how often antipsychotics are prescribed off-label to adults without schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who are enrolled in Medicaid, which pays for more than 70% of antipsychotic prescriptions in the United States. ⋯ Off-label use of antipsychotic medications is common, particularly among the elderly and children/adolescents. Given that these drugs are expensive, have potentially severe side effects, and have limited evidence supporting their effectiveness off-label, they should perhaps be used with greater caution.
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To assess medication adherence rates of patients utilizing an online prescription management account compared with nonusers. ⋯ Patients who utilized an online prescription management account had higher rates of medication adherence as compared with nonusers. Additional studies are needed to assess which specific components of the prescription management account have the biggest impact on adherence.
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To verify implementation and use of TELEMACO (TELEMedicina Ai piccoli COmunilombardi; http://www.telemaco.regione.lombardia.it/), which provides specialized continuity of care with innovative healthcare services in remote areas of the Lombardy region of Italy; to design a network in the territory for sharing of continuityof- care programs; and to allow the relevant health authorities to collect cost data to establish a model for sustainable pricing for implementing these services. ⋯ TELEMACO provided evidence that there is a growing need for home management of patients using telemedicine, a common and efficacious approach that can ensure care continuity, especially in chronic diseases.