North York hospital welcomes eCare

[attach]3140[/attach]Imagine that in the fast paced emergency room a nurse transcribes and misinterprets the treatment your doctor prescribed; or that a nurse, tired from a long shift, administers a drug treatment to the wrong patient.

These are the realities of human error in the medical world.

North York General Hospital’s new technology is expected to address these issues and improve patient safety.

The automated system, named eCare, incorporates electronic order sheets, a bar code system for administering medication, and access to updated medical information for physicians.

With a manual system, when a patient is admitted the physician fills a written order sheet, laying out the tests and treatment. That traditional system, however, is prone to error.

“The reason why is because when the orders are transcribed by someone else they can be misinterpreted,” said Dr. Jeremy Theal, gastroenterologist and lead physician on the eCare project.

The electronic order sheets side step the risk associated with that misinterpretation.

“In addition, what it does, is it actually enhances safe prescribing and safe medication administration.”

Studies suggest thousands of deaths occur annually in Canadian hospitals due to medication related errors, Theal said. These errors include the wrong medications being administered, medication given at the wrong time of day, and the wrong patient receiving that medication.

Bar codes on both patients’ wristbands and medications reduce the risk of such errors. Nurses use hand held devices to scan both wristbands and medications and are alerted if they are about to commit an error.

“We know from the studies and the literature that you can reduce medication related errors as much as 55-88% using this type of system,”Theal said.

The system, which is compatible with multiple platforms such as desktops, workstations on wheels, and tablet computers, also allows doctors to consult updated summaries of medically relevant information. A physician typically only has access to the information they can remember.

“There are 6,000 articles published in the literature every day, soit’s impossible for every physician…to be up-to-date on everything,”Theal said. This system, however, now provides them with summarized relevant information without requiring physicians to sift through heaps of recent research themselves.

Although the combination of features incorporated in eCare make it a first in Canada, similar automated systems have been used elsewhere, including the U.S., where they have been shown to significantly reduce risk to patients. Now those patient care benefits will be available here in North York.