Patient Safety in Psychiatry-1.4 Safety-Enhancing Technology

Video Transcription

This is section four on safety-enhancing technology.  There are several ways in which technology and automated systems can play a role in patient safety. Technology can provide for faster automation  and communications without any impedance by human interactions and sometimes with higher fidelity,  especially as opposed to handwriting. A good example of safety-enhancing technology is computerized physician order entry,  where an automated decision support information system can reduce many medication errors. And actually, according to the Institute of Medicine,  the presence of a CPOE would have prevented 84% of missing dose errors, 86% of potential adverse drug sentinel events, and 60% of preventable adverse events in one set of errors.  According to the study of a large tertiary care hospital in Chicago, 64% of errors could have been prevented using a CPOE.  And so, there is support for using these in your clinical practice.  And psychiatrists in outpatient practice certainly can benefit from some forms of technology, whether it's scheduling programs for cell phone messages,  for web-based documentation, or for software that provides help when thinking about interactions among medications.  Emails and text messaging are important to consider, but some practicing physicians do not want to have text messages or emails with their patients.  And this is an understandable situation that will have to be considered as you move forward in applying this to your practice.  It's important to remember, as those who have seen this movie would think, that computers and humans are not always a perfect fit.  And so, there are unintended consequences of technology. Whether it's hitting the wrong button on a computer when you're ordering a medication,  or allowing an autofill process to put in information into a computer screen you didn't actually want.  Overall, there is evidence that computerized technological approaches to ordering and documentation can be helpful.  But we all should continue to pay attention to human factors  and the factors of technology as we continue to apply technology to what we do.

Video Summary

In this video, the speaker discusses the role of technology and automated systems in enhancing patient safety. They highlight computerized physician order entry (CPOE) as an example of safety-enhancing technology, which can reduce medication errors. The Institute of Medicine states that CPOE could have prevented a significant number of errors. The speaker also mentions the benefits of technology for psychiatrists in outpatient practice, such as scheduling programs and software for medication interactions. However, they caution that there can be unintended consequences, such as errors from hitting the wrong button or autofill processes. The speaker emphasizes the need to consider both human and technological factors when applying technology in healthcare. No credits are mentioned in the video. This summary is 150 words.

Keywords

technology

automated systems

patient safety

computerized physician order entry

medication errors