Karen Smith, nursing director at Central Illinois Endoscopy Center in Peoria, explains how her ASC uses EMRs to prevent wrong site surgeries or pathology tests for the wrong patients.
1. "Time out" before surgeries. Ms. Smith says Central Illinois Endoscopy tailored its EMR system so that physicians and assisting staff members are all required to "time out" before a procedure. This ensures the right procedure is being performed at the right site on the right patient.
"Anytime one of our physicians does a procedure, every single person — including nurses and technicians — has to stop, pay attention, look at each other, make sure they have the right patient [and make sure they] are doing the right procedure with the right equipments on the right body part," she says. "Our EMR requires this take place before the procedure, and the physician has to document it into the patient's electronic record."
2. "Time out" for specimens. Central Illinois Endoscopy applied this same requirement to identifying specimens. This ensures specimens are marked to the correct patient before they are sent to pathology labs for testing.
"We don't want to make a mistake and label the wrong specimen with a patient's name, so at the end of the procedure, staff members have to indicate in the EMR that they stopped and acknowledged the correct patient's identity and birthday to the specimen," Ms. Smith says. "There was a case at a local hospital where somebody's name was written on the wrong biopsy which later showed cancer. So that patient, even though they didn't have cancer, had to undergo surgery for it."
3. Verification as a second line of defense. In addition to indicating in the EMR that physicians and staff verified the correct patient with the right site, right procedure or right specimens, all members of the surgical team must also verify their acknowledgment by listing their names in the EMR as a sort of electronic signature.
"After they put yes or no indicating that the procedure or specimen is marked to the right patient, all members of the team also have to list all their names in the EMR system," Ms. Smith says. "This creates more accountability, and that verification stays with the medical record forever."
Learn more about Central Illinois Endoscopy Center.
1. "Time out" before surgeries. Ms. Smith says Central Illinois Endoscopy tailored its EMR system so that physicians and assisting staff members are all required to "time out" before a procedure. This ensures the right procedure is being performed at the right site on the right patient.
"Anytime one of our physicians does a procedure, every single person — including nurses and technicians — has to stop, pay attention, look at each other, make sure they have the right patient [and make sure they] are doing the right procedure with the right equipments on the right body part," she says. "Our EMR requires this take place before the procedure, and the physician has to document it into the patient's electronic record."
2. "Time out" for specimens. Central Illinois Endoscopy applied this same requirement to identifying specimens. This ensures specimens are marked to the correct patient before they are sent to pathology labs for testing.
"We don't want to make a mistake and label the wrong specimen with a patient's name, so at the end of the procedure, staff members have to indicate in the EMR that they stopped and acknowledged the correct patient's identity and birthday to the specimen," Ms. Smith says. "There was a case at a local hospital where somebody's name was written on the wrong biopsy which later showed cancer. So that patient, even though they didn't have cancer, had to undergo surgery for it."
3. Verification as a second line of defense. In addition to indicating in the EMR that physicians and staff verified the correct patient with the right site, right procedure or right specimens, all members of the surgical team must also verify their acknowledgment by listing their names in the EMR as a sort of electronic signature.
"After they put yes or no indicating that the procedure or specimen is marked to the right patient, all members of the team also have to list all their names in the EMR system," Ms. Smith says. "This creates more accountability, and that verification stays with the medical record forever."
Learn more about Central Illinois Endoscopy Center.