Application of Business Process Management to drive the deployment of a speech recognition system in a healthcare organization.

We present a methodology based on Business Process Management to guide the development of a speech recognition system in a hospital in Spain. The methodology eases the deployment of the system by 1) involving the clinical staff in the process, 2) providing the IT professionals with a description of the process and its requirements, 3) assessing advantages and disadvantages of the speech recognition system, as well as its impact in the organisation, and 4) help reorganising the healthcare process before implementing the new technology in order to identify how it can better contribute to the overall objective of the organisation.

[Blood cultures in the emergency department].

Introduction: Culture of emergency room blood samples is common practice, but open to controversy. As compared to other emergency tests, blood collection requires twice as much time and needs a refined technique to avoid contamination, and the study has no immediate diagnostic utility.

Methods: This prospective study includes consecutive adult patients with positive emergency room blood cultures.