Mitigating Error Vulnerability at the Transition of Care through the Use of Health IT Applications

    Authors

    K. Cortelyou-Ward; A. Swain;T. Yeung

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Med. Syst.

    Keywords

    Transition of care; Health information technology; Adverse drug events; MEDICATION DISCREPANCIES; INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY; DISCHARGE; SYSTEMS; Health Care Sciences & Services; Medical Informatics

    Abstract

    Adverse drug events are largely considered to be errors in which the severity of effects could be lessened or even prevented through more effective medication reconciliation practices. Transitions of care, particularly at the time of discharge from the hospital, represent a time of heightened error vulnerability that contributes to medication discrepancy occurrences. The observed vulnerability can be attributed to communication and care continuity gaps across health care settings and can often lead to preventable errors. Health IT tools developed through research can identify factors which increase the risk of medication discrepancies. Additionally, the implementations of optimized clinical workflow processes to form effective transitions of care are approaches to decreasing medication discrepancies which may lead to adverse drug events. While federal policies and certifying organizations have implemented quality initiatives to increase focus on medication reconciliation practices in the hospital and primary care settings, the same practices must be implemented after a patient is discharged to their homes or another health care facility in order to mitigate error vulnerabilities that occur at the transition of care. This paper provides an overview of health IT system capabilities and their applications within and across health care delivery settings to facilitate care coordination to ensure continuity of care.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Medical Systems

    Volume

    36

    Issue/Number

    6

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    3825

    Last Page

    3831

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000309348200039

    ISSN

    0148-5598

    Share

    COinS