My colleague, Michael Porter, posted a blog from the SharePoint Conference about an interesting session he attended. During the session, a business case on how SharePoint can benefit healthcare was presented. The case focused on a doctor working with a clinical IT director, utilizing technology to improve patient care.
Here is an excerpt from Michael’s post describing the problem at hand:
They focus on Medical Handover clinical care from one set of specialists to another. They have a variety of processes and best practices in how to do this. The World Health Organization even has this. In the UK, bad handover resulted in 3,500 deaths last year. That’s like 7 planes falling out of the sky. In other words, it’s a problem.
The old system was driven by manual and paper processes. Meetings that happen don’t deliver responsibility of the patient to people. No one takes notes on it. You want or need to track new decisions, that doctors annotate records of the patient, and that any discussion is captured for all to see it.
Electronic medical records are a necessity to tracking and sharing the information needed to improve Medical Handover. Michael goes on to explain the processes set up in SharePoint to alleviate the problem as well as the key benefits of the solution, which include:
- Speed – he only had 2 months to do it.
- Process flexibility
- Connectivity and visibility
- Team collaboration
- Patient safety
- Doctor reputation
The use of electronic medical records is changing the face of healthcare, in part by facilitating the sharing and analysis of medical and health information. Without EMRs, analysis of Medical Handovers would be much more tedious and time consuming. Advances in health IT, including incorporating SharePoint to share data, allow for improved patient care and safety.
