Quality Forum Cites AAMI Institute in Health IT Report
A draft report released by the National Quality Forum (NQF) on the “state of electronic data readiness” in healthcare cites the work of the AAMI Foundation’s Healthcare Technology Safety Institute (HTSI) in addressing infusion system challenges.
The draft report, Critical Paths for Creating Data Platforms: Patient Safety, specifically focuses on how advances in data capture can lead to “more robust infusion pump safety measurement and improvement.” NQF, an advocacy organization that works to improve healthcare quality, is drafting the report at the behest of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A public comment period ends on Sept. 24 and a final report is expected by the end of October.
NQF focused on infusion pumps because dosing errors are one of the most common types of adverse events. “According to one U.S.-based study, medication administration errors occur at a rate of 11.1 errors per 100 doses,” reads the report.
The report cites two installments of HTSI’s Safety Innovations series: Best Practices for Infusion Pump—Information Network Exchange, which presents steps on how to properly integrate a pump with a wireless network, and Smart Pump Implementation: A Guide for Healthcare Institutions.
NQF convened a technical expert panel to help assess “the ability of existing health information technology (health IT) infrastructure to support quality reporting of intravenous infusion therapy using infusion pump medical devices.” As part of that, the panel surveyed health IT readiness at nine healthcare facilities. “None of the sites that participated in the environmental scan have a fully electronic and integrated system for infusion therapy that allows for digital data capture and exchange at every step of the workflow,” the report reads.
The panel recommended hospitals adopted a standardized format for data collection, and use that data for decision support.
The panel also reviewed HTSI’s initiatives “to determine what activities exist to standardize processes and improve patient safety with respect to device use, especially those related to infusion therapy,” the report reads.
It also notes that HTSI was awarded a $328,660 grant from the CareFusion Foundation to support a three-year national study on the frequency and types of intravenous medication errors, and strategies to address them.
The report is part of a larger project by the NQF to assess the readiness of healthcare facilities to measure and report the data required by the Affordable Care Act and other legislation. Another draft report focusing on care coordination is expected to be available in October.
To read the infusion pump report, click here (PDF). For more information on HTSI, click here.
Posted: September 5, 2012