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In case you were wondering why you haven’t heard from us in a while, we’ve moved! Our blog is now available on the Amcom website at http://www.amcomsoftware.com/blog. We hope you’ll sign up at this new link to receive e-mail notifications or RSS feeds.
We’re also mixing things up and the blog will include thoughts and experiences from various members of the Amcom team. Last week’s post was a reflection on the Minnesota HIMSS conference by Paige Hancock, one of our Business Solution Advisors.
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Exciting news at Amcom this week – our new website is up and running! We’re a company focused on making communications more efficient for healthcare, emergency dispatch, government offices, and more, so we’ve updated our site to make searching for communication solutions more efficient, too.
My Mobility in Healthcare blog is also transitioning to the new website at: http://www.amcomsoftware.com/blog, so check back weekly for my update on topics from big data and bring your own device to critical test results and alarm management.
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I wrote last week about a study that identified diagnostic errors as the most common and costly of medical mistakes. The authors’ work was focused on malpractice claims made in the U.S., but this article is also getting attention on the other side of the globe. The Medical Journal of Australia spoke with Dr. Michael Smith, clinical director of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, and he had this to say:
“About half of all diagnostic errors… are system errors — the lab result that goes missing, for example. A classic is the abnormal result that gets put into a patient’s file, but the GP isn’t informed, and if the patient doesn’t come back, the diagnosis is missed or delayed.”
“There are systems that can be put in place by medical practices to reduce those errors,” Dr. Smith said. “That’s the sort of work that’s starting to happen nationally.”
It’s actually happening internationally. In addition to the interest our Australian office has been hearing from customers, we’re already helping many hospitals manage their test results more efficiently, including Tuomey Healthcare in South Carolina, EMH Healthcare in Ohio, and Quinte Health Care in Ontario, Canada.
A recent article grabbed my attention with the headline “Missed, wrong diagnoses most dangerous errors.” In their study examining 25 years of U.S. medical malpractice claims, the authors concluded diagnostic errors are the most common, costly, and dangerous of medical mistakes. What was not clear to me were how many of missed diagnoses were because of poor communication of incidental findings. We can’t help a pathologist interpret a biopsy or a radiologist read a scan, but we can help hospitals with the missing link to managing incidental findings. If you would like to see how, here’s a great video overview.
I recently read an analysis by West Health Institute which estimates the U.S. healthcare industry could save $30 billion per year by implementing better system interoperabilities. The paper cites waste from repeated exams, manual data entry, and several other examples. Increased length of stay alone is estimated to add $17.8 billion in unnecessary costs. I frequently hear from our customers that even simple communication changes can have a big impact on reducing length of stay. Here are just two examples:
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