Pharmaceutical drug shortages are multifaceted and complex problems that affect all aspects of health care, including patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, third-party payers, the pharmaceutical industry, and regulators. Drug shortages have increased significantly since 2000, which cause increases in healthcare costs and compromised patient care. New government regulations have led the U....

Distributed Cognition (DCog) has been proposed as being a better approach to analyzing healthcare work than traditional cognitive approaches, due to the collaborative nature of healthcare work. This study sought to explore this by applying two DCog frameworks, DiCoT and the Resources Model, to the analysis of infusion pump use in an Intensive Care Unit. Data was gathered through observations an...

Healthcare information systems such as an Electronic Medication Administration System (EMAS) have the potential to enhance productivity, lower costs, and reduce medication errors. However, various issues have arisen from the use of these systems. A key issue relates to workarounds as a result of a misfit between the new information system (IS) implementation and existing work processes. However...

There have been heated debates on the controversial role of healthcare Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) which negotiate contracts with vendor on the behalf of healthcare providers. These GPOs cover their costs by charging manufacturers ‘‘Contract Admi nistrative Fees,’’ instead of being reimbursed by the providers. This causes conflicts of interests. Therefore, purchasing through GPOs migh...

Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) is one of the most studied areas of health information technology due to advocacy for its use by influential organizations such as the Institute of Medicine (IOM). In the United States, the federal government has played a significant role in encouraging use of e-prescribing technology and in stimulating associated research nationwide. The federal governmen...

The administration of pro re nata medications is the responsibility nurse. However, ethical uncertainties often happen due to inability incapacitated patients collaborate with nurse in process decision making for medication administration. There a lack integrative knowledge and insufficient understanding regarding considerations surrounding patients. Therefore, they have been discussed this pap...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) care is a high priority for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Aging Veterans, new cases of SCI from recent conflicts, and increasing numbers of women Veterans have likely changed the profile of the VHA SCI population. This study characterizes the current Veteran population with SCI with emphasis on healthcare utilization and women Veterans. We analyzed VHA admin...

The need for strong leadership and increased diversity is a prominent issue in today's health services workforce. This article reviews the latest literature, including research and proposed agendas, regarding women in executive healthcare leadership. Data suggest that the number of women in leadership roles is increasing, but women remain underrepresented in the top echelons of healthcare leade...

President Obama has recently announced an additional $50 billion to support the development of healthcare informatics and electronic patient records systems. Public attention has, therefore, focused on ensuring that such investments do not suffer from the failures that have jeopardised patient safety in previous large-scale software procurements. This paper analyzes recent failures that have af...

Information technology has been widely promoted in the healthcare sector to improve current practice and patient safety. However, end users are seldom involved extensively in the design and development of healthcare systems, with lip service often paid to the idea of true user involvement. In this case study the impact of sustained authentic user participation was explored using an interdiscipl...