Research shows that human error, as opposed to mechanical failure, is the major causal factor of industrial and transportation accidents. The same is true in healthcare. This paper briefly discusses five human error reduction methods that have been adapted from high reliability organisations, such as aviation, for use in the healthcare industry. However, before the widespread adoption of these ...

Health information technology (HIT) is an area of computer technology concerned with the design and development of systems to generate and store healthcare-related information and make use of that information. Healthcare organisations that use HIT, for instance, such as an ePrescribing system, are expected to have lower costs, improved efficiency and reduced errors while also giving better serv...

Doctors and mental healthcare professionals are at greater risk of being stalked than the general population, particularly by their patients. Despite causing significant psychological distress, stalking remains underrecognised and poorly managed. Healthcare organisations should ensure appropriate policies are in place to aid awareness and minimise risk, including the provision of formal educati...

An important insight in business management during recent years is the awareness that organisations need to focus on the processes that create value for their customers. This is in order to see to that value is created as efficiently as possible and that unnecessary or redundant activity is avoided. As a consequence, the organisations’ IT support need to interact with business processes in a be...

Cloud systems [1, 2] can be used to enable data sharing capabilities and this can provide an abundant of benefits to the user. There is currently a push for IT organisations to increase their data sharing efforts. According to a survey by InformationWeek [3], nearly all organisations shared their data somehow with 74 % sharing their data with customers and 64 % sharing with suppliers. A fourth ...

OBJECTIVE This survey provides an overview of the development of policies and strategies for quality improvement in European healthcare systems, by mapping quality improvement policies and strategies, progress in their implementation, and early indications of their impact. STUDY DESIGN A survey of quality improvement policies and strategies in healthcare systems of the European Union was cond...

This study examines the effect of three factors: information technology (IT) skills of healthcare workers, present status of computerisation in their organisations, and workers' attitudes on the diffusion of electronic medical records (EMRs) in the healthcare environment. Data were obtained from a self-questionnaire distributed to 390 healthcare workers. The study finds that respondents need an...