Clinical information systems: instant ubiquitous clinical data for error reduction and improved clinical outcomes.
Immediate access to existing clinical information is inadequate in current medical practice; lack of existing information causes or contributes to many classes of medical error, including diagnostic and treatment error. A review of the literature finds ample evidence to support a description of the problems caused by data that are missing or unavailable but little evidence to support one proposed solution over another. A primary recommendation of the Consensus Committee is that hospitals and departments should adopt systems that provide fast, ubiquitous, and unified access to all types of existing data. Additional recommendations cover a variety of related functions and operational concepts, from backups and biosurveillance to speed, training, and usability.
Feied
Craig F
CF
Institute for Medical Informatics, 110 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010, USA. cfeied@ncemi.org
Handler
Jonathan A
JA
Smith
Mark S
MS
Gillam
Michael
M
Kanhouwa
Meera
M
Rothenhaus
Todd
T
Conover
Keith
K
Shannon
Tony
T
D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011786:Quality Control; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018511:Systems Integration