If you think CPOE implementation - a mountain of a task in itself - is the end of the clinical IT road, think again. Pioneering hospital organizations around the country are now moving toward evidence-based care delivery and processes. Clinician leaders in those organizations, working closely with CIOs and their teams, are scanning the clinical literature and building order sets and care guidelines to provide a higher quality of patient care. What they're seeing is the future, one being pushed already by purchasers, payers, and policy makers. Read our cover story, “Show Us the Evidence,” page 34, to see how cutting-edge organizations like Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh are leveraging IT to improve care quality and patient safety, using objective clinical data as the driver.

Anesthesia errors can not only be life threatening for the patient, but can also be a high source of malpractice settlements for the hospital. As the use of IT in hospitals grows, more providers are beginning to bring it into the operating room with the use of anesthesiology systems. Read “Can You Feel IT Coming?” page 14, to understand why, even with adoption of anesthesiology information systems still somewhat low, their use is rising, and will continue to do so.

As EHR adoption increases and data is more frequently exchanged across health organizations, the need for an accurate system of patient identification (EMPI) is becoming more evident. Errors resulting from duplicate patient records or incomplete information can incur significant costs, burden the administrative staff, and most importantly, compromise patient safety. In “Identity Crisis,” page 22, we look at how the push to share data electronically - both inside and outside of the hospital walls - is forcing patient identification to the forefront.

Healthcare Informatics 2010 January;27(1):10