In the crowded and fast-changing market for handheld software, you’ll find tremendous variation among products for physicians. As a result, hospitalists are typically on their own when it comes to buying software. While organizations like Group Health are building sophisticated systems that allow physicians to tap into vast databases with their PDAs, most physicians, like Dr. “We also need to be mobile, and we have to track all of our patients.” Liu, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University School of medicine and assistant director of Emory-Eastside Hospitalist Group in Atlanta. “We need to have access to a huge amount of information because we’re a multispecialty-based field,” says Dr. He regularly looks up information about a diagnoses or medication, inputs billing codes or reviews a medical history. Liu, MD, for example, pulls out his handheld computer every 15 minutes or so. “There’s no other good way to keep track of all the information you need.” “When you’re on the move in the hospital, you can’t carry all the data you need with you,” Dr. The group even keeps spares on hand in case someone leaves a handheld at home.Īs the popularity of pint-size computers booms among physicians, hospitalists in particular are discovering that the tiny devices can be not only a timesaver, but a lifeline to an ever-growing body of medical information. PDAs “shorthand for personal digital assistants “are so critical to hospitalists at Group Health that everyone is given a device “and expected to use it. “If you don’t have your PDA,” says Tom Schaaf, MD, clinical director of the hospitalist pro-gram, “you’re dead in the water.” Information collected on hospitalized patients in the Spokane area is stored in a database that hospitalists can tap into via their PDAs, and every physician’s daily input can be easily handed off to the doctor working the next shift. Show up for work without your handheld computer at Group Health Permanente in Spokane, Wash., and you’re in for a tough time. TDC is the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, with 18,000 policyholders in all 50 states.Published in the December 2003 issue of Today’s Hospitalist The system then prints out an accurate, legible prescription that patients can take with them to the pharmacy. The system checks for interactions with other drugs that the patient is taking and checks that the drug is covered by the patient’s insurance plan before the prescription in written. Of medication error claims, 42.4% involved significant permanent injury, and 21.1% resulted in death.ĭoctors who use iScribe’s systems can write accurate legible prescriptions with just a few taps on the handheld device. The first installations will begin in the third quarter of 2000.ĭavid Levison, president and chief executive officer of iScribe, notes that a study conducted by the Physicians Insurers Association of America (PIAA) identified prescription medications as the second most frequent and second most expensive procedure in claims against physicians insured by PIAA-member companies. Under the program, iScribe will provide its electronic prescribing systems free of charge to these physicians, including delivery and installation of the iScribe handheld device, a wireless printer, a radio frequency network for larger practices, and unlimited toll-free customer support. Eventually, all TDC member-physicians who choose to participate will receive the system. TDC initially will offer the iScribe system to its highest-prescribing physicians. We feel so strongly about the benefits of the iScribe system that we have contacted other medical malpractice insurers to alert them to this technology and encourage them to implement similar discount programs with the iScribe system." "We believe their system will have a profound impact on the reduction of medication errors by introducing greater information, efficiency, and accuracy into the process of prescribing drugs at the point of care. "We believe this partnership can help medical practitioners reduce medication prescription errors," says Richard Anderson, MD, chairman of the TDC board of governors. The system is manufactured by iScribe, based in San Mateo, CA. TDC customers will receive a discount on their medical malpractice insurance premium after using iScribe’s electronic prescribing systems for one year. The Doctors’ Company (TDC), the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, has announced a program to provide a financial incentive to physicians who adopt the iScribe system, a mobile, handheld, wireless, electronic prescribing technology. Malpractice insurer endorses system for electronic prescribing
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |