Outcome Analysis and Safety Surveillance
Medical treatment is becoming increasingly complex. New treatments and techniques are emerging daily and the risk of long-term adverse side effects is unfortunately growing in proportion.
In hospitals today, medical informatics analysis is based upon coded diagnostic related groups (DRGs). This data is designed to capture the patients’ course of treatment and to establish cost for managing insurance claims. However, DRGs do not provide the clinical specificity and resolving power needed to identify the root cause of subtle safety-related problems in the clinic.
Studies have demonstrated that systemic adverse events and negative trends can be caused by many factors including medications, devices, treatment protocols, unsafe environments and human error. Identifying and even predicting these events is critical to improving patient safety and quality of care. Discovering these trends requires special software and data that is clinically more detailed than DRGs and gathered close to the point of care to ensure accuracy.
Case Study – Cardiac Cath Lab Safety and Outcome Analysis