We Can Do Better
By Matthew Sappern, CEO, PeriGen
Earlier this month, the well respected, widely read British Medical Journal published a scary study coming out of Johns Hopkins. Entitled Medical Error, the Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, it immediately sparked debate in many corners as to the veracity of the data, the precision of the study, the complexity and limitations of actually compiling and analyzing this information. I’ll leave that to others – I see a blunt message here: We Can Do Better.
To me, this is not so much a question of enhanced training or personnel or protocols. Humans excel at critical thinking, but there will always be a “Human Factor” to manage – those few instances where a human misses something. This study begs the question “are there tools that can help clinicians at the bedside – patient by patient?” How can we best leverage technology to augment caregivers?
As you all know better than I, the clinical setting is challenging! At the labor and delivery bedside, nurses are monitoring and documenting several aspects of the labor, interacting and calming the patient, managing the patient’s family (Nurse Luisa, I apologize again for asking the same questions every five minutes 12 years ago), keeping the rest of the care team informed. All while looking for what might be faint indications of an intervention needed.
Fortunately, PeriGen customers have at their disposal some of the most advanced tools in the world to help share the load. PeriGen systems help count and calculate critical factors, providing a safety net for L&D clinicians and the world’s most precious patients. Other specialties in the hospital should take note of the great work that PeriGen users are delivering.
