The move from paper to electronic prescribing (EP) and medicine administration systems has long been advocated. Initial studies in the adult setting showed a significant reduction in medication errors. However, there are additional challenges to overcome to tailor these systems to paediatrics. Building on the basic elements of EP with the development of customised paediatric clinical decision s...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Interactive voice response systems integrated with electronic health records have the potential to improve primary care by engaging parents outside clinical settings via spoken language. The objective of this study was to determine whether use of an interactive voice response system, the Personal Health Partner (PHP), before routine health care maintenance visits could...

OBJECTIVES Transitions in patient care pose an increased risk to patient safety. One way to reduce this risk is to ensure accurate medication reconciliation during the transition. Here we present an evaluation of an electronic medication reconciliation module we developed to reduce the transition risk in patients referred for home healthcare. METHODS Nineteen physicians with experience in man...

Complete, accurate and timely hospital discharge summaries are important for continuity of care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an electronic discharge summary system in improving the medication information provided compared to the information in paper discharge summaries. We conducted a retrospective audit of 199 paper and 200 electronic discharge summaries from a 3...

BACKGROUND The Northwestern University Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERT), funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is one of seven such centers in the USA. The thematic focus of the Northwestern CERT is 'Tools for Optimizing Medication Safety.' Ensuring drug safety is essential, as many adults struggle to take medications, with estimates indicating that o...