Hospitals use EMR substitutes

Swayed by the arguments of advocates, many hospitals are eventually planning to adopt EMRs and other new technologies. As a temporary measure, some hospitals are turning toward to a simpler--but probably quite effective--solution. Projects like the Vial of Life allow patients to download and print out a paper record of their medication histories and other key medical data. That harmless looking little piece of paper could end up saving a lot of lives: The Institute for Healthcare Improvement argues that poor communication as patients move through the hospital may be to blame for as much as 50 percent of medication errors and 20 percent of adverse drug events.

- see this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)

PLUS: There is also a tech-friendly solution to the hand-off problem. Start-up Vinova Health Systems has developed a new program designed to help prevent problems. Article

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