Studies in health technology and informatics
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Computerized alerts provided by health care information systems have been shown to enhance clinical practice. However, clinicians still override more than half of the alerts. This indicates that certain aspects of alerts need improvement to fulfill their purpose of supporting clinicians in decision making. ⋯ Alert message contents that lack clinical importance or provide incorrect texts increase alert non-adherence. Few studies have yet focused on the impact of alert specifications on clinicians' adherence. A research agenda is needed on alert specifications and their impact on clinicians' adherence in order to develop alerts that truly support clinician decision making.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
Healthcare professionals' experiences with EHR-system access control mechanisms.
Access control mechanisms might influence on the information seeking and documentation behavior of clinicians. In this study, we have surveyed healthcare professionals in nursing homes and hospitals on their attitudes to, and experiences with using access control mechanisms. ⋯ Not all clinicians logged out of the system when they left a workstation, and some clinicians reported to do some of their documentation work in the name of others. The reported practices might have implications for the safety of the patient.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
Impact of admission and discharge peak times on hospital overcrowding.
The ability of hospital staff to get a patient to the right bed at the right time is dependent on bed occupancy, and is a key issue in all acute hospitals. This paper seeks to identify the impact of admission and discharge timing on hospital occupancy with reference to the peak in daily admissions and discharges. ⋯ We found statistically significant differences in mean and peak occupancy and patient length of stay between categories (one-way univariate ANOVA p<0.0001). The results support early patient discharge initiatives to reduce hospital occupancy rates.