title: Using portable digital technology for clinical care and critical incidents: a new model.
abstract: The number of patients suffering adverse incidents during treatment in hospitals is not declining. The cost of this poor safety record in Australia is 1 billion dollars to 4.7 billion dollars each year. Quality and safety initiatives focus on promoting adverse event reporting. Major problems include poor reporting of adverse events and lack of clinician involvement. We propose a model for clinician-led reporting based on secure transmission of encrypted data from a programmed personal digital assistant (PDA) to a secure database, leading to automated analysis of clinician-performance data. The programmed PDA also facilitates the reporting of critical incidents. All critical incidents are automatically fed back by email to the organisational quality managers.
authors.affiliation: Perioperative Medicine, Anaesthesia and Pain Management, The Geelong Hospital, Ryreie Street, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia. steveb@barwonhealth.org.au
authors.forename: Stephen N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Bolsin
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Faunce
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Colson
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems / Q000295:instrumentation; D001315:Australia; D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017751:Safety Management