Implementation and use of clinical decision support (CDS), third on this year's list, encompasses "tools that we use to ensure that the right information is presented at the right time within the workflow," explains Robert C. Giannini, NHA, CHTS-IM/CP, patient safety analyst and consultant, ECRI Institute. But if implementation or use is suboptimal, opportunities for CDS to aid decision making may be missed. Care could suffer, and patient harm could result.

The list and associated guidance is intended to help healthcare organizations identify priorities and aid them in creating corrective action plans. ECRI Institute is providing free access to the Executive Brief at www.ecri.org/PatientSafetyTop10. Additional resources linked to throughout the report are available to members of ECRI Institute PSO and to ECRI's Healthcare Risk Control program.


ECRI Institute encourages organizations to adapt relevant patient safety interventions to meet each care setting. Although not all patient safety concerns on the list apply to all healthcare organizations, many are relevant to a range of settings across the continuum of care.

For information about working with ECRI Institute PSO, call (610) 825-6000, ext. 5558, e-mail pso@ecri.org, visit www.ecri.org/pso, or write to us at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.


About ECRI Institute
For nearly 50 years, ECRI Institute's work in patient safety, adverse event reporting and analysis, and development of recommendations has improved patient care at hospitals and other providers around the world. The ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization is a component of ECRI Institute, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to improving the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of patient care. ECRI Institute has a long history of investigating events and publishing authoritative risk reduction strategies. ECRI Institute is designated as an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute developed and implements the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System, a mandatory error and near-miss reporting program for Pennsylvania hospitals and other healthcare facilities, under contract to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, winner of the 2006 John M. Eisenberg Award. For more information, visit www.ecri.org. Find ECRI Institute on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ECRIInstitute) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/ECRI_Institute).


SOURCE ECRI Institute

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