Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Overrides of clinical decision support alerts in primary care clinics.
Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems can alert physicians about potential clinical risks and suggest suitable treatment alternatives at appropriate times in the health care process. We evaluated the frequency with which physicians overrode medication alerts and the override reasons provided. ⋯ Physicians overrode more than half of CDS medication alerts, with formulary, age-based, and renal substitutions the most likely. Many drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions overridden had the potential to cause patient harm.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Proposal of the patient location tracking and query (PLQ) of IHE integration profile for the better patient tracking.
The Patient Location Tracking Query (PLQ) is the IHE integration profile in order to find the location of patient only in a hospital, not for cross-referencing between multiple hospitals. In Japan, it is common for elderly patients to consult multiple departments in one hospital visit. To find the location of patients quickly is very important for productivity and use of resources in a hospital. ⋯ In order to collect the location of patients, multiple systems must provide the location into central management system. We proposed PLQ for the better patient care in hospitals. We believe that by using this PLQ profile hospital staffs are able to utilize the resource more efficiently.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Exploring the potential of an electronic documentation system to reduce length of stay.
Electronic patient records are important in patient data management. Aim of this 2-year study was to investigate the effect of an e-documentation system on the ED length of stay. The study compared three length of stay parameters with and without the use of a prototype e-documentation system. 99 of trauma patients were monitored with the use of the electronic system and 101 patients (control group) were monitored with traditional methods. ⋯ Similar effect was also found to the total ED length of stay (127±93 vs. 206±41 minutes) and time between completion of care and ED exit (26±10 vs. 57±23 minutes). LOS was reduced with the e-documentation system. This is important for the quality of trauma patient care, since saving time during the first hours after the accident usually determines the outcome of trauma patients.
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Critically injured patients are often found in unusual positions and environments which can hinder the first responder's access to render necessary care. This work describes the use of the videolaryngoscope in airway management of the critically injured patient under unusual conditions.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Use of knowledge discovery techniques to understand nurse practitioner practice patterns and their integration into a healthcare system.
The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of applying knowledge discovery techniques to identifying nurse practitioner practice patterns and enacted scope of practice. For the research, we plan to use data extracted from a Ministry of Health database. The data items are focused around: nurse practitioner demographics, health authorities, and encounter types. This analysis produces patterns that indicate relationships between the demographics, scope of practice and practice settings of nurse practitioners working in British Columbia.