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Tony Collins is an investigative and campaigning journalist and former Executive Editor at Computer Weekly. With his friend and colleague David Bicknell he wrote "Crash", which found common factors in the world's largest public and private sector IT-related failures. He wrote "Open Verdict", a book on the strange deaths of defence scientists. He writes, and gives talks, on the tensions and disputes between suppliers and users.
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Linked-in ProfileCerner is a "single source of truth"
An ideal electronic health record system is one with data so reliable it's a single source of truth for clinicians. Has a Cerner system in Egypt hit that target?
Published 12:20, 13 December 10
A press release says that the largest children's cancer hospital in the world, in Cairo, has gone live successfully with a Cerner electronic health record system that "is the Single Source of Truth for accurate patient information, including allergies, the latest diagnostic results and accurate patient weight at the point of care".
About 700 clinicians and staff at the Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt are said to be using Cerner Millennium solutions to "provide superior care and improve patient safety".
The hospital was founded with a mission to care for paediatric cancer patients free of charge regardless of race, creed or financial status. It's funded by donations from the people of Egypt and philanthropists from around the world.
The system gives doctors and nurses access to real-time patient information and protocols that are designed to improve clinician knowledge and prevent medical errors, said Dr. Sherif Abouelnaga, vice president academic affairs, research, and outreach at the hospital.
"This access to best practices and clinical guidelines ensures the latest medical information is at the clinician’s fingertips, allowing them to make informed decisions about patient care.”
When prescribing, physicians can access a patient’s medical history, including allergies and diagnostic results, and guidelines on doses, based on age and weight.
If physicians were to prescribe an adult dose to a child by mistake, the decision-support features would give a warning of a potential overdose. The system also gives alerts on potential drug interactions, and suggests alternative prescriptions.
All care is documented electronically, which reduces the possibility of error because of illegible handwriting. Clinicians don't have to spend time searching for misplaced paper charts.
The Cerner Millennium system is one the two main hospital administration systems offered by the Department of Health under NPfIT, the National Programme for IT. The other is iSoft's Lorenzo.
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