TY - JOUR
T1 - Medication errors, handoff processes and information quality
T2 - A community hospital case study
AU - Chircu, Alina M.
AU - Gogan, Janis L.
AU - Boss, Scott R.
AU - Baxter, Ryan
PY - 2013/4/12
Y1 - 2013/4/12
N2 - The purpose of this paper is to examine how clinical handoffs affect clinical information quality (IQ) and medication administration quality. A case study was conducted in a US hospital. The authors applied a business process management (BPM) perspective to analyze an end-to-end medication administration process and related handoffs, and accounting control theory (ACT) to examine the impact of handoffs on IQ and medication errors. The study reveals how handoffs can lead to medication errors (by passing information that is not complete, accurate, timely or valid) and can help reduce errors (by preventing, detecting and correcting information quality flaws or prior clinical mistakes). The paper reports on one case study on one hospital unit. Future studies can investigate the impact of clinical IQ on patient safety across the multitude of health information technologies (e.g. computerized provider order entry (CPOE), electronic medication administration records (EMAR), and barcode medication administration systems (BCMA)) and approaches to process design and support (e.g. use of clinical pathways and checklists). The findings can contribute to more successful design, implementation and evaluation of medication administration and other clinical processes, ultimately improving patient safety. The paper's main contribution is the use of accounting control theory to systematically focus on IQ to evaluate and improve end-to-end medical administration processes.
AB - The purpose of this paper is to examine how clinical handoffs affect clinical information quality (IQ) and medication administration quality. A case study was conducted in a US hospital. The authors applied a business process management (BPM) perspective to analyze an end-to-end medication administration process and related handoffs, and accounting control theory (ACT) to examine the impact of handoffs on IQ and medication errors. The study reveals how handoffs can lead to medication errors (by passing information that is not complete, accurate, timely or valid) and can help reduce errors (by preventing, detecting and correcting information quality flaws or prior clinical mistakes). The paper reports on one case study on one hospital unit. Future studies can investigate the impact of clinical IQ on patient safety across the multitude of health information technologies (e.g. computerized provider order entry (CPOE), electronic medication administration records (EMAR), and barcode medication administration systems (BCMA)) and approaches to process design and support (e.g. use of clinical pathways and checklists). The findings can contribute to more successful design, implementation and evaluation of medication administration and other clinical processes, ultimately improving patient safety. The paper's main contribution is the use of accounting control theory to systematically focus on IQ to evaluate and improve end-to-end medical administration processes.
KW - Accounting control theory (ACT)
KW - Business process management (BPM)
KW - Case study
KW - Handoffs
KW - Health care
KW - Information quality (IQ)
KW - United States of America
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84873429002&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/14637151311308286
DO - 10.1108/14637151311308286
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84873429002
SN - 1463-7154
VL - 19
SP - 201
EP - 216
JO - Business Process Management Journal
JF - Business Process Management Journal
IS - 2
ER -