The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 Issue 2 (Apr 2015) | Page 34

Nurses Say Medical Errors Could Be Reduced If Devices Were Connected
dence-based clinical guidelines to screen, diagnose, and manage
specific conditions and encouraged detailed conversations with
patients about their health, Bakken says.

Continued from page 30

tions such as weight-loss counselling.
For each of the health issues studied, mobile apps with decision
support features resulted in significantly higher diagnosis rates than
apps with only bare-bones tools for recording results from a patient
exam. Increased diagnosis rates with decision support were:
»» Seven times more for obesity and overweight health issues
(33.9% vs. 4.8%)
»» Five times more for tobacco use (11.9% versus 2.3%)
»» 44 times more in adult depression (8.8% versus 0.2%)
»» Four times more in paediatric depression (4.6% versus
1.1%)
The app may have worked because, unlike software aimed at
physicians that focuses more on diagnostic codes needed for
medical billing, it prompted nurse practitioners to follow evi-

For tobacco screening, for example, the app prompted nurses to
ask not just about cigarettes but also about other products such
as chewing tobacco. To diagnose patients who are overweight or
obese, the app calculated a body-mass-index to quickly pinpoint
people who might benefit from weight-loss counselling and
other interventions. With depression, the app prompted nurses
to ask a series of questions to make it easier to identify patients
with depressive symptoms.
The paper is titled: "The Effect of a Mobile Health Decision Support
System on Diagnosis and Management of Obesity, Tobacco Use, and
Depression in Adults and Children" and it appeared in the November/
December 2014 issue of the journal. Co-authors from Columbia Nursing
are associate professors Haomiao Jia, PhD and Rita John, DNP, EdD. n

Nurses Say Medical Errors Could
Be Reduced If Devices Were
Connected, Survey Shows
Half of Nurses Surveyed Have Witnessed a
Medical Error Because Medical Devices Were
Not Coordinated, According to Survey.
Nurses believe medical errors could be
reduced if the devices hospitals rely
on for testing, monitoring and treating
patients could seamlessly share information, according to the results of a
national survey of more than 500 nurses
in the US, conducted online by Harris
Poll on behalf of the Gary and Mary
West Health Institute.
Each year, it is estimated that more than
400,000 Americans die from preventable
medical errors. This not only takes an
enormous emotional toll on families and
friends, but also places a heavy economic
burden on the nation — an estimated
trillion dollars or higher. As hospitals
wage a war on error, there is growing
appreciation that medical devices, while
individually safe and effective at improving care and saving lives, can create risks
for patients and challenges for clinicians
when not seamlessly connected.
According to the survey, half of these
nurses reported witnessing a medical
error resulting from a lack of coor-

32

April 2015

dination among medical devices in a hospital setting. Devices include everything
from infusion pumps, ventilators, pulse
oximeters, blood pressure cuffs to electronic health records.
Among these nurses, three in five (60 per
cent) said medical errors could be significantly reduced if medical devices were
connected and shared data with each other
automatically. This problem could be
addressed by the widespread adoption of
open communications standards that allow
for the safe and secure exchange of data.
“Nurses are the front line of patient care
and have an unrivalled ability to identify
and address problems at the intersection of patients and technology,” said
Dr. Joseph Smith, West Health Institute’s
chief medical and science officer. “This
survey helps show how much of a nurse’s
time could be better spent in direct care
of patients and families, and how errors
could be potentially avoided if medical
devices, which have been so successful at
improving patient care, were able to take
the next step and seamlessly share critical
information around the patient’s bedside.”
Medical de ٥