HHS invests $50 million to reduce medical errors - Patient Safety - Brief Article

Health Management Technology, Dec, 2001

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will spend $50 million to improve patient safety, including $5.3 million on 22 projects to evaluate use of computers and information technology to reduce medical errors and raise quality of care. The grants, announced in mid-October by HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, represent the government's largest single investment to address the estimated 44,000 to 98,000 patient deaths related to medical errors each year.

State agencies, universities, hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, physician offices and other organizations will conduct a total of 94 projects funded by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The 22 technology projects will evaluate a broad range of systems, including automated data collection using medical monitors in a Bluetooth wireless network; Web portals for sharing medical information between providers and patients; handheld devices for e-prescribing in an urban pediatric emergency department; and clinical informatics tools to reduce drug-dose errors.

For details, visit, www.ahrq.gov/qual/newgrants/.>

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