Systems Improvement/Organizational Culture Change (SIOC)

What is the SIOC focus for Colorado?

Use of these systems to improve patient safety and quality of care given in your hospital.

• Computerized physician order entry (CPOE).
• Bar coding.
• Telehealth.

How will CPOE and bar coding improve patient safety?

• CPOE reduces mistakes resulting from handwritten instructions.
• CPOE helps prevent dosage errors by limiting range of appropriate dosages.
• Bar coding reduces likelihood of dispensing the wrong drug or amount.

What are the financial benefits of CPOE and bar coding?

• Decreases medication errors and adverse drug events (ADE).
  o Preventable ADEs increase a patient’s length of stay by an average of 2.2 days, with an estimated cost of $4,600 per event (Bates, JAMA, 1997).
• Enhances work efficiencies, nurse recruitment and retention.
• Improves medicine charge capture.

How can telehealth improve patient care?

• Expands accessibility to specialized health care to rural areas of Colorado.
• Allows real-time medical consultation to patients living in rural locations.

What are the financial benefits of telehealth?

• Reduces costs for patients and their families (travel time and time away from work).
• Opportunity for hospitals to gain recognition for exceptional service which can help expand potential market share.
• Enables rural hospitals to provide more services such as continuing medical education (CME) to the medical staff.

More information on CPOE >

Participants in this project will be selected from an applicant pool of Colorado Hospitals. For more information please contact Hilarie Olson, Quality Improvement Specialist, at 303.875.6975 or holson@coqio.sdps.org, or Michelle Mills, Project Director, at 303-847-1727 or mmills@coqio.sdps.org.