Electronic unified therapy record as a clinical risk management tool in the Italian healthcare system

Abstract

Digitization of health records is still struggling to take hold in the Italian healthcare context, where medical records are still largely kept manually on paper. Besides being anachronistic, this practice is particularly critical if applied to the drug chart. Poor handwriting and transcription errors can generate medication errors and thus represent a potential source of adverse events. In the present study, we attempt to test the hypothesis that the application of a computerized medical record model may represent a useful tool for managing clinical risk and medical expenditure. We shall do so through the analysis of the preliminary results of the application of such a model in two private hospitals in Northern Italy. The results, although preliminary, are encouraging. Among the benefits of digitizing drug records, we recorded a greater accuracy and adequacy of prescriptions, a reduction in the overall workload for nurses (no longer required to manually transcribe the list of drugs from one chart to another), as well as an optimization of the management of drug stocks by hospital pharmacies. The results in terms of clinical risk reduction will be monitored through a prospective cohort study that will take place in the coming months.