Worth a Read: Articles of Interest to the Healthcare IT Field

Improving Patient Safety by Taking Systems Seriously
By: Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MBA, MPH; Sara J. Singer, PhD, MBA
JAMA, January, 2008

The need to address the entire patient system from birth to hospice to make strides in patient safety is discussed. You can read the JAMA article as well as listen to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s “Author in the Room” discussion of this article. Topics covered include the barriers that need to be addressed to assure safer care and the “culture of systems” that must be established to make real progress.
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Corralling Documents
By: Brian Albright
HealthCare Informatics, March, 2008

Because Document management and imaging (DMI) systems are becoming a crucial part of the migration to an EMR DMI solutions vendors are providing a wide range of capabilities. ProMedica Health Systems walks the ready through their process of cost justification and system selections for their document management application.
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Backbone of an EMR
By: Suresh Gunasekaran
HealthCare Informatics, March, 2008

A look at the major components of a pharmacy system implementation and how they have major impact on enterprise-wide IT projects.
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