Join the Event Highlighting the Survey Results
Missed Connections, Costly Medicine: Front-line Views on Interoperability and Improved Patient Care
When: Thursday, March 12, 2015, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
Where: The Knight Studio at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, D.C.
Live-streamed: Connect at www.westhealth.org/igniteinterop
Twitter Hashtag: Share and join the conversation #WestIDEA
Nurses believe medical errors could be reduced if the medical devices hospitals rely on for testing, monitoring and treating patients could seamlessly share information, according to the newly released results of a national survey of more than 500 nurses conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of the Gary and Mary West Health Institute.
Results of the survey will be released at a March 12 event exploring how health care technology is failing to help clinicians care for patients. Unconnected medical devices consume an enormous amount of time, require manual patient data entry, interrupt care and potentially result in medical errors – the third leading cause of death in the United States.
“Nurses enter the profession because they want to care for patients, not because they are interested in programming machines,” said Patricia H. Folcarelli, RN, senior director of Patient Safety at the Silverman Institute for Health Care Quality and Safety at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “As many as 10 devices may monitor or treat a single patient in an intensive care unit. The nurse not only has to program and monitor the machines, he or she often spends a significant amount of time transcribing data by hand because the devices are not designed to share information.”
Participating in the Event
- Sarah Kliff, senior editor, Vox.com (moderator)
- Nick Valeriani, chief executive officer, West Health Institute
- Patricia H. Folcarelli, RN, PhD, senior director, patient safety, Silverman Institute for Health Care Quality and Safety, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
- Tejal Gandhi, MD, MPH,CPPS president and CEO, National Patient Safety Foundation
- Lenore Alexander, executive director, Leah’s Legacy
- Bakul Patel, associate director for digital health, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Joseph Smith, MD, PhD, FACC, chief medical and science officer, West Health Institute
Survey Methodology
This survey to be revealed March 12 was conducted online by Harris Poll between January 7 and 16, 2015 and included 526 US nurses, employed full-time with a BSN or higher and a title of RN or higher who work in a non-school setting. For early access to the survey and complete methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Tim Ingersoll at tpingersoll@westhealth.org.
About The West Health Institute
The Gary and Mary West Health Institute is an independent, nonprofit medical research organization that works with healthcare providers and research institutions to create new, more cost-effective ways of delivering high-quality care. We’re wholly funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West as part of West Health, which includes the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit, non-partisan resource in Washington, D.C. that provides education, expertise and policy proposals to transform the American healthcare experience. Together we are pioneering new and smarter technologies, policies and practices to make high-quality healthcare more accessible at a lower cost to all Americans.
For more information, find them at www.westhealth.org and follow them @westhealth.