Designing and evaluating an electronic patient falls reporting system: perspectives for the implementation of health information technology in long-term residential care facilities.

Background And Purpose: Patient falls are the leading cause of unintentional injury and death among older adults. In 2000, falls resulted in over 10,300 elderly deaths, costing the United States approximately $179 million in incidence and medical costs. Furthermore, non-fatal injuries caused by falls cost the United States $19 billion annually.

Using process visualizations to validate electronic form design.

Electronic reporting systems have the potential to support health care quality improvement initiatives across varied health care settings, specifically in low-technology settings such as long-term residential care facilities (LTRCFs). Yet, these organizations face financial barriers to implementing such systems and the LTRCF workforce is generally not as technology-ready as larger organizations' workforces. Electronic reporting systems implemented in these settings must therefore be inexpensive and easy-to-use.

Providers do not verify patient identity during computer order entry.

Introduction: Improving patient identification (ID), by using two identifiers, is a Joint Commission safety goal. Appropriate identifiers include name, date of birth (DOB), or medical record number (MRN).

Objectives: The objectives were to determine the frequency of verifying patient ID during computerized provider order entry (CPOE).