HCI presents our fifth annual HIT Innovator Awards. The 2006 awards have gone to nine individuals selected for their resourcefulness and creativity in using technology to improve operational efficiency, patient care and services. The range of achievements is broad — from leading a major implementation under difficult conditions to harnessing technology to create new ways of working. Our cover story package begins on page 30.
All clinicians know the five rights of medication administration — right medication, right dose, right time, right route, right patient — but how can managers ensure that busy care givers check each one? Now, multidisciplinary collaboration, pharmacy system integration and specialized technology can not only impose rules at the point-of-care, but document the delivery of medications and keep an audit trail of who did what, when. Go to page 52 for Right Patient, Right Dose…
There is consensus among clinical, financial and IT leaders that surgical centers must automate in order to achieve greater operational efficiency, improve surgery-case throughput and increase clinical outcomes accountability in the quest for improved patient safety and cost management. However, the OR's unique IT needs continue to pit end-users against IT managers in best-of-breed versus core clinical vendor battles. Read how the implementation of IT can ensure the surgery center can keep functioning at peak efficiency and safety in Surgery, Safety and IT (page 20).
Correction: A July article entitled “Automating the ED,” incorrectly identified Mission Viejo, Calif.-based Patient Care Technology Systems as Patient Care Tracking Systems.
