Usability and Patient Safety Go Hand in Hand

As you probably read, I had the great opportunity to attend the eClinicalWorks annual conference.   One of the most interesting comments in the keynote was this truth bomb that was shared during the opening keynote: “Usability and patient safety go hand in hand.” Usability and patient safety go hand in hand. #truthbomb @eClinicalWorks #eCWNC22 Example: noise in drug interaction alerting. — John Lynn (@techguy) October 7, 2022 I’d never heard anyone say this.  I’ve understood the concept, but it was great to hear it described so succinctly.  I wonder how many other EHR vendors think about this concept. For those not familiar with it, it’s easy to understand when you think about something like the prescribing process.  I’ve seen so many across a wide variety of EHR vendors.  If the interface is not usable, then many users will take shortcuts and that can put patients in harms way.  Some of you may remember the lawsuit that came out because a child was prescribed an adult dosage.  Another example of usability putting patients at risk. I could give more specific clinical examples, but this can also be applied more broadly as well.  For example, if the EHR or other health IT software is difficult to use, it can cause two important patient safety issues.  First, it can prevent a doctor from getting access to the information they need so that they can treat the patient effectively. If it’s hard to get at that information or if ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Clinical Health IT Company Healthcare IT eClinicalWorks eCW EHR Usability EMR Usability Health IT Usability patient safety Source Type: blogs