The Adventist University of Health Sciences in Orlando, Fla., is calling for an update in hospitals' nursing IT to improve quality and efficiency of care.
Nurses working in hospitals with fully implemented basic EHR systems had a 14 percent decrease in the odds of missing details when transferring patients between the units. Nurses also saw an 18 percent decrease in the odds of a unit receiving a poor grade on patient safety, according to a 2010 survey cited by the university.
There are currently 190,000 preventable deaths due to diagnostic errors, errors of omission and failure to follow guidelines each year, and 380,000 to 450,000 preventable drug injuries each year. Further implementation of EHR systems among nursing staff could reduce avoidable medical injuries and unnecessary drug injuries or deaths, according to the university.
There is also a high demand for specialists in nursing informatics. Of the 3 million nurses nationwide, only 9,000 were specialists in informatics in 2013. Of those, 23 percent were nursing informatics specialists, 7 percent were clinical analysts, 6 percent were application analysts, 5 percent were directors of nursing informatics and 4 percent were consultants, according to the university.