Cutting down on hospital errors

At Modern Healthcare, Natasha Nicol and Leanne Huminski examine how South Carolina's 460-bed McLeod Regional Medical Center cut its medical error rate by focusing on culture, automation and process. A 1999 IOM report on hospital errors shed light on the problem and McLeod took steps to prevent errors where it could. "The goal of the culture change was to create a sense of urgency regarding medication practices that lead to harm, and to engage employees to create a safer environment for them and patients," the authors explain. The hospital also removed blame from the errors, which often cause doctors to feel uncomfortable reporting problems. On the IT side of things, the hospital beefed up its technology in several areas, including automated drug dispensing, bar-coding, computerized physician order entry and medication reconciliation. And though Nicol Huminski admits the cost of implementing these technologies was high, they feel it was worth the price--and the outcome. "Our adverse drug events have been reduced by 90% and our rate of patient harm is 0.34 per 1,000 doses," they report.

For more information on McLeod:
- see this report from Modern Healthcare