The data are centralized and made available publicly, and safety problems are addressed in efforts to avoid accidents. Researchers in the Department of Anaesthesia at the University of Basel in Switzerland have developed an anonymous, international Critical Incident Reporting System on the World Wide Web to distribute information about anesthesia accidents. Modeled on an Australian system, it allows doctors to send online reports, which are then posted on the Web site without identifying information about the patient or the person who reported the accident. Visitors to the site respond with their analyses. In one of the most ambitious efforts of its type, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will launch a Patient Safety Reporting System pilot project at 22 of its health facilities in Minnesota, Wisconsin and upstate New York next year.
Information technology is another area that the industry has yet to fully utilize.
The health-care industry spends an estimated 2.5 percent of its revenues on information technology, much of it for billing systems, compared with an average of 12 percent to 15 percent in other industries. Computerized physician-order entry systems on hospital wards eliminate penmanship errors and sound alarms about excessive doses, drug interactions and drug allergies. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania are among the local hospitals that have computerized physician-order entry systems on their floors. Using a highly sophisticated system of this type, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston cut its number of errors and lowered costs by reducing hospital stays. It will pay for itself, and in short order.