Workshop to focus on preventing IT errors

Identifying and preventing IT errors will be the focus of a workshop taking place next month.

ECRI Institute, a non-profit body that researches the best approaches to improve patient care, along with the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), will be holding a health IT focused pre-conference session at the 2014 Annual Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, FL.

This pre-conference workshop, “Patient Safety - Making Healthcare Safer: Health IT Challenges and Solutions,” will highlight what leading health systems are doing to identify and prevent IT-related errors, and begins on Sunday, February 23, 2014, from 8:30am to 4:30pm EST.

Experts from ECRI Institute, including Ronni Solomon, JD, executive vice president and general counsel and Erin Sparnon, engineering manager, Health Devices, will review the patient safety infrastructure and governance in place and explore how leveraging health IT helps solve safety issues.

“This pre-conference workshop is a great opportunity to explore different channels for health IT in today’s hospital setting, and also explore IT-enabled solutions to other non-IT-related safety problems,” said William Marella, director, patient safety reporting programs, ECRI Institute.

“This program brings together thought leaders, like Dr David Classen and Dr Dean Sittig, ONC leaders, experts from ECRI Institute, AAMI, and others who are working on the front lines at the intersection of patient safety and health IT.”

Topics covered include: applying safety science to health IT; strategizing for health IT safety surveillance and response and incorporating safety risk management into IT processes and culture.

This pre-conference workshop is intended for hospital administrative, clinical, and IT leadership, managers and professionals in informatics, patient safety, quality, and risk management, as well as other healthcare professionals with an interest in leveraging health IT to improve patient safety.

ECRI Institute safety experts Karen Zimmer and William Marella will also present a session during HIMSS14 on Tuesday, February 25, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm in Room 207C at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. This session, "Applying Risk Management Tools to Health IT Safety Challenges" (Session #96), focuses on diagnosing the root causes of health IT problems, prioritizing hazards for remediation, and developing feasible and locally relevant solutions.