A recent study from Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., found that pulling information from a patient's electronic health record and creating a computerized safety checklist reduced the rates of a common hospital-acquired infection.
Researchers found the automated checklists based on EHR data decreased the rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSI, from 2.6 per 1,000 days to 0.7.
Alerts were generated for physicians if specific events needed to occur, such as when a patient's central line was due for a change.
"Electronic medical records are data-rich and information-poor," said Natalie Pageler, MD, the study's lead author. "Our new tool lets physicians focus on taking care of the patient while automating some of the background safety checks."
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