Potential Prevention of Medical Errors in Casualty Surgery by Using Information Technology

Lenz R, Blaser R, Schnabel M, Mann D, Jancke P, Kuhn K (2004)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2004

Edited Volumes: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing

Pages Range: 285-290

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC)

Event location: Nicosia, Cyprus CY

DOI: 10.1145/967900.967961

Abstract

Recent studies on adverse events in medicine have shown that errors in medicine are not rare and may cause severe harm. Quality problems in discharge letters may be a source of medical error. We have analyzed 150 discharge letters of an outpatient clinic for casualty surgery in order to identify and to classify typical mistakes. A Failure Mode and Effect Analysis has been initiated in order to estimate the risk associated with different failure types. Possible IT solutions to prevent the identified problems have been assessed, focusing on expected effects and on feasibility. Our analyses have shown that there is a need to improve the quality of discharge letters, and that IT support based on the frequency and severity of certain error types has a good potential. We plan to introduce both pre-structured discharge letters and reminders in order to prevent the observed errors. They could improve both documentation quality and, if used during the patient visit, quality of treatment. Moreover, they could produce training effects on less experienced physicians. To be able to rapidly integrate such an adapted IT support into a comprehensive Healthcare Information System (HIS), it is important to establish a responsive IT infrastructure.

Authors with CRIS profile

Richard Lenz Professur für evolutionäres Datenmanagement

Involved external institutions

Technische Universität München (TUM) DE Germany (DE) Philipps-Universität Marburg DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Lenz, R., Blaser, R., Schnabel, M., Mann, D., Jancke, P., & Kuhn, K. (2004). Potential Prevention of Medical Errors in Casualty Surgery by Using Information Technology. In Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) (pp. 285-290). Nicosia, Cyprus, CY.

MLA:

Lenz, Richard, et al. "Potential Prevention of Medical Errors in Casualty Surgery by Using Information Technology." Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Nicosia, Cyprus 2004. 285-290.

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