Solutions addressing the integration of IP network within health flows and exploiting the potential of unified communications to lead the information where it is needed at all times.
Currently it is the same person in care who must bring his clinic records, through paper documents or, sometimes, must hope for a network of informal contacts between the medical staff. This means wasting resources and time and can easily introduce mistakes, given the nature of verbal and paper-based process.
In addition to direct clinical failures, even from the standpoint of the overall system, paper management produces waste and faults: data come in late, undergoing an intensive data entry processes, often resulting not fully reliable. The result is a non-optimum use of resources. It should also be considered that an Interoperable system and Unified Communications would also allow, in real time an effective system for statistical/ epidemiological monitoring for health emergencies as well as a more efficient management of patient check-in and treatments management.
The impact that this could have on medical processes is immense enough to think that:
‘In the U.S., between 44,000 and 98,000 people die from not valued drug interactions and that a health system that carries out an interoperable electronic health records (EHR) with the use of tracking and tracing systems would allow, in the U.S., a savings of 77.8 billion dollars, equal to 5% of annual costs on health’
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, USA-www.iom.edu
‘45% of errors in medicine is due to communication mistakes’
Alessandro Ghilardino, Ministry of Health.
Nowadays, actually, the operations are carried out according to custom rather than according to standard procedures. The result is a considerable loss of time and expense of medical equipment, doubling equipments because often nobody knows where they are (pumps infusion, wheelchairs, ultrasound, etc.), medical and nursing staff have to be increased up to 15 and 20% because of communication mistakes or for lack of an information system to the bedside.
While tomorrow with such solutions it will be possible to know in real-time the costs and performances of the hospital, optimizing costs and improving the perception of reliability from the citizen, and also planning standard routes and procedures in order to optimize resources, using computer protocols and checklists. The only solution is therefore better communication for better care.
