Learn how to get ‘Wired for Safety’
Thursday November 29, 2007 -- Natalie Miller
Healthcare providers are invited to learn about the latest in patient safety as it pertains to electronic health records at an upcoming educational session.

The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) offers ‘Wired for Safety - Advancing Patient Safety through e-Health’ on Jan. 18, 2008 at the Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville located at 90 Bloor Street E. in Toronto. The course is geared towards hospital CEOs, chief information officers, chiefs of staff, clinical care managers and directors of patient safety and risk management as well as senior administration.

“As information technologies become increasingly sophisticated, more opportunities to improve patient safety and quality care in the healthcare sector are emerging. Initially proposed as a way to reduce medication errors, the application of e-Health has now garnered further exposure as an integral component in making the healthcare system safer for patients,” OHA literature about the course states.

“Exploring the relationship between e-Health and patient safety helps to identify current trends, challenges and benefits for care providers and their patients. This conference will highlight today’s state of e-Health and its contributions to patient safety, and will provide a look at how some organizations have implemented and achieved success with e-Health applications.”

The conference will address the state of e-Health and patient safety, Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), transitions in care, patient engagement, incident reporting systems and the future of e-Health and patient safety.

One of the sessions will deal with CPOE as a means of reducing medication errors and highlight the challenges, lessons learned and offer pointers about how to make the system successful.

Speakers are still being lined up but confirmed speakers at this point include Tara Amos, project manager of The SIMS Partnership and Sarah Kramer, vice-president and chief information officer for Cancer Care Ontario.

For a complete overview of the sessions and for registration information, visit this link.