The Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing applied scientific research to enable improvement of patient care. The organization is a designated Evidence-Based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and listed as a federal Patient Safety Organization by HHS.
The institute has just released its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards. The annual list highlights the technology safety topics the Institute feels warrants particular attention for the coming year. Included on the list is incorrect or missing data in EHRs and other health IT systems. Cybersecurity also makes the list. “Technology safety can often be overlooked,” says James P. Keller, Jr., vice president, health technology evaluation and safety, ECRI Institute. “Based on our experience, there are serious safety problems that need to be addressed. ECRI Institute recommends that hospitals use our list as a guide to help prioritize their technology-related safety initiatives.”
The 2015 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report is a complimentary download. Each hazard includes an overview of the issue and recommended action steps to aid healthcare facilities in their efforts to maintain a safe environment for patients and healthcare workers. Topics on the 2015 list include:
- Alarm hazards: Inadequate alarm configuration policies and practices
- Data integrity: Incorrect or missing data in electronic health records and other health IT systems
- Mix-up of IV lines leading to misadministration of drugs and solutions
- Inadequate reprocessing of endoscopes and surgical instruments
- Ventilator disconnections not caught because of mis-set or missed alarms
- Patient-handling device use errors and device failures
- “Dose creep”: Unnoticed variations in diagnostic radiation exposures
- Robotic surgery: Complications due to insufficient training
- Cybersecurity: Insufficient protections for medical devices and systems
- Overwhelmed recall and safety alert management programs
For each topic, ECRI Institute describes the hazard, presents recommendations for minimizing the risks, and lists helpful resources that readers can access to learn more about the topic. To develop the annual list, ECRI Institute’s multidisciplinary staff of engineers, scientists, nurses, physicians, and patient safety analysts draw on the resources of the Institute’s 45-year histor. Insight is also gained through testing and analyzing healthcare technologies. This includes examining health technology-related problem reports from hospitals and health systems worldwide, and reports received through ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization.