Week 1: Nursing Informatics and Patient Safety

In 2011, Mason General Hospital was named by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine as one of the “Most Wired” hospitals in the United States. What makes this particularly significant is that Mason General is a small, 25-bed, rural hospital in the state of Washington. It credits its success to nurse Eileen Branscome, director of clinical informatics. Under her leadership, the hospital adopted such innovations as visual smart boards where real-time patient information is always available. According to the magazine, those hospitals designated as “Most Wired” “show better outcomes in patient satisfaction, risk-adjusted mortality rates, and other key quality measures through the use of information technology (IT)” (Mason General Hospital and Family of Clinics, 2012).

Developments in information technology have enabled patients and health care providers to collaborate for quality improvement at an unprecedented level, and nurses have consistently been at the forefront of these efforts. This week you focus on the IOM report “To Err Is Human” and consider how health information technology has helped to address the issues of patient safety and quality health care.

References:

Weinstock, M., & Hoppszallern, S. (2011). Health care’s most wired 2011. Hospitals & Health Network Magazine, 85(7), 26–37.

 

Mason General Hospital and Family of Clinics. (2012). MGH&FC named most wired – Again! Retrieved from http://www.masongeneral.com/most_wired.html

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze the utilization of health information technology to address issues raised in the IOM report “To Err Is Human”
• Assess the role of informatics in improving health care safety

Photo Credit: Angela Schmidt/iStock/Getty Images

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informatics: Scope & standards of practice (2nd ed.). Silver Springs, MD: Author.

• “Introduction”This portion of the text introduces nursing informatics and outlines the functions of the scope and standards.

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

• • Chapter 1, “Nursing Science and the Foundation of Knowledge”This chapter defines nursing science and details its relation to nursing roles and nursing informatics. The chapter also serves as an introduction to the foundation of knowledge model used throughout the text.

• Chapter 2, “Introduction to Information, Information Science, and Information Systems”In this chapter, the authors highlight the importance of information systems. The authors specify the qualities that enable information systems to meet the needs of the health care industry.

Wakefield, M. K. (2008). The Quality Chasm series: Implications for nursing. In R. G. Hughes (Ed.), Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (Vol. 1, pp. 47–66). Rockville, MD: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Pages 1–12These 12 pages highlight the issues raised by the Quality Chasm Series and examine their long-term implications for nursing. The text reviews external drivers of safety and quality, design principles for safe systems, and guidelines for health care redesign.

Cipriano, P. F., & Murphy, J. (2011). Nursing informatics. The future of nursing and health IT: The quality elixir. Nursing Economic$, 29(5), 282, 286–289.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

In this article, the authors focus on how nurses can use health information technology to help transform health care using the recommendations included in the 2010 Institute of Medicine report “The Future of Nursing, Leading Change, Advancing Health.” The author also discusses the 2011 National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care.

Plawecki, L. H., & Amrhein, D. W. (2009). Clearing the err. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 35(11), 26–29.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

This article presents a summary of the Institute of Medicine report “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” The authors provide an overview of what has been accomplished in the decade following the IOM report, focusing in particular on health information technology.

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2012e). Introduction to nursing informatics. Baltimore, MD: Author.

 

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 8 minutes.

 

In this video, Doris Fischer, Richard Rodriguez, Carina Perez, and Carmen Ferrell introduce the concept of nursing informatics. These individuals provide insight into how informatics is transforming the health care system by improving efficiency and quality of care.

 

Optional Resources

Hilts, M. E. (2010). Up from the basement. Health Management Technology, 31(9), 14–15.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Institute of Medicine. (1999). To err is human: Building a safer health system. Retrieved from http://iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/1999/To-Err-is-Human/To%20Err%20is%20Human%201999%20%20report%20brief.pdf

Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M.S. (Eds.). (2000). To err is human: Building a safer health system. Washington, D. C.: Institute of Medicine. Retrieved from the National Academies Press website: https://download.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9728

Discussion: The Effects of “To Err Is Human” in Nursing Practice

The 1999 landmark study titled “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System” highlighted the unacceptably high incidence of U.S. medical errors and put forth recommendations to improve patient safety. Since its publication, the recommendations in “To Err Is Human’ have guided significant changes in nursing practice in the United States.

In this Discussion, you will review these recommendations and consider the role of health information technology in helping address concerns presented in the report.

To prepare:

• • Review the summary of “To Err Is Human” presented in the Plawecki and Amrhein article found in this week’s Learning Resources.
  • Consider the following statement:

“The most significant barrier to improving patient safety identified in “To Err Is Human” is a “lack of awareness of the extent to which errors occur daily in all health care settings and organizations (Wakefield, 2008).”

• Review “The Quality Chasm Series: Implications for Nursing” focusing on Table 3: “Simple Rules for the 21st Century Health Care System.” Consider your current organization or one with which you are familiar. Reflect on one of the rules where the “current rule” is still in operation in the organization and consider another instance in which the organization has effectively transitioned to the new rule.