Morning Headlines 4/1/13

Death of patient at Royal Derby Hospital leads to new system ‘to alert staff of medication needs’

In England, the Royal Derby Hospital implements an eMAR system after a patient’s DVT prophylaxis medication was skipped three times over nine days. During her stay the patient fell, broke her hip and then subsequently developed a fatal pulmonary embolism.  The coroner found that even though the appropriate fall precautions had been in place, the omission of DVT prophylactics "more than minimally contributed to the development of the DVT and was therefore a contributing factor in her death."

Hospitals Question Medicare Rules on Readmissions

An article in the New York Times questions the fairness of CMS’s new readmissions penalties, citing critics that say hospitals should be looking for ways to improve care for patients who are still in the hospital rather than managing the patients’ personal lives post-discharge. The article also questions the fairness of using readmission rates as a basis for penalizing hospitals. It does, however, acknowledge that since CMS’s October initiation of penalties, readmission rates have dropped from 19 percent to 17.8 percent.

Hospital implementing new electronic health record system

49-bed Keokua Area Hospital, of Keokua, IA, goes live with CPSI.

Tablet Computers Acceptable for Reading EEG Results, Mayo Clinic Study Says

Mayo Clinic physicians in Arizona have shown that tablet computers can be used to analyze EEG results. The objective of their study was to determine whether a tablet is an acceptable alternative to a laptop for remote EEG interpretation. The findings showed that the tablet cost significantly less and weighed less and had a comparable screen resolution as compared to the laptop.