The healthcare industry is wrestling with how to best address patient concerns about the high rate of medical errors - an issue spotlighted in December by an Institute of
Medicine report that found 98,000 deaths annually are caused by mistakes.
Kaiser Permanente is taking a stab at this by eliminating the guesswork out of a doctor's handwritten prescriptions, which can cause pharmacist and nurse misinterpretations,
and asking its physicians to go wireless. The integrated healthcare organization is partnering with ePhysician, an e-health company, to equip more than 800 physicians in the Mid-
Atlantic Permanente Medical Group with high-tech handheld devices that are expected to enhance prescription accuracy.
The devices use secure wireless handheld technology and the Internet to help doctors access a suite of services for prescribing medication, scheduling patient appointments and
viewing allergy and formulary reference information.
The technology will be available to more than 40,000 patients in the Mid-Atlantic region.
(Kaiser Permanente, Susan Whyte Simon, 301/816-6264)