L. Blair Heath--HIM

L. Blair Heath--HIM

Dr. Fineberg talks about ways to enhance the quality and safety of health care.

He speaks about better ways to do what we already know should be done for patients.

Dr. Fineberg feels that the quality of health care in the United States could be improved. He speaks about the article “To Err is Human” which documents the frequency of errors in the United States. Tens of thousands of patients lost their life because of medical errors. Dr. Fineberg also speaks of “Crossing the Quality Chasm” which lays out an agenda of improving the safety and quality of health care in the United States.

Health care should be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. Dr. Fineberg proposes a few approaches to solve the quality of health care. The Moral Actor model says, providers have an ethical and moral responsibility to their patients. This would eliminate many errors. Rational Actor Model’s theory is to reward quality and to punish the errors in care. Psychological Actor Model states that people are overworked and exhausted, and decision support systems would help organize the information. This would help overcome many deficiencies. Educated Actor would involve improvement of education systems would greatly improve quality. Information technology is very important in health care. It is, however, underused in the United States.

Information Technology is key in improving health care. Mothers who receive computer-generated reminders, had a 25% higher rate of on time immunizations for their infants. Adverse drug affects have been reduced from 28-95% before computerized systems. This is where many medical errors occur. 9% of redundant lab tests could be eliminated by using a computerized system. Information Technology is very important and has the potential to greatly improve the quality of health care in the United States. I don’t think anything will improve the quality of health care overnight, but I do believe that implementing more information technology will help make great progress.