(9th September, 2014; Business Wire India); In its endeavour to build awareness and consciousness Apollo Hospitals in association with ISQua, JCI, NABH and many other institutions hosted the 4th International Congress on Patient Safety along with the 5th edition of International Conference on Transforming Healthcare with IT 2014 for the first time in the Eastern part of the country. The two day event took place on 5th and 6th of September, 2014 at ITC Sonar, Kolkata.
The International Congress on Patient Safety served as a unique platform where the global healthcare leaders shared their experiences and exchanged knowledge and expertise on patient safety which in turn could help in implementing best practices at all levels. This Congress, a collaborative effort by all stakeholders to share their experiences in patient safety was also aimed at improving communication between Caregivers and Enterprise Risk Management and Patient Safety.
The International Conference on Transforming Healthcare through IT witnessed an exciting confluence of minds from the field of Healthcare and Information Technology who discussed and disseminated the latest happenings in the field of Healthcare IT. This edition of India’s only not-for-profit International Conference on the Impact of Information Technology in Healthcare brought together nearly 40 speakers from across the world addressing over 500 delegates about the latest happenings in the field of Healthcare IT in their respective countries.
Patient safety is the cornerstone of a patient-centric healthcare system. The First ever Asian Patients Safety Awards 2014 to recognise the best practices within Asia were also held on the first day of the conference. These awards recognized the major contribution of individuals and organizations promoting patient safety and quality healthcare by consistently upholding principles of healthy patients, safe and affordable care. Innovation in Safe Communication, Medication Safety, Anaesthesia & Surgical Safety, Infection Prevention and Practice, Innovation in Staff Education were some of the categories in which awards were presented.
4th International Patient Safety Congress- Day 1
The first day of the International Patient Safety Congress focussed on enriching and informative sessions spanning topics such as Improving Communication in Patient Safety, Patient Satisfaction vs. Patient Safety, Patient Safety 2020, Technology and Patient Safety, Economics of Patient Safety, Professional Medical Associations and Road to Patient Safety.
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Improving Communication in Patient Safety (Dr. Prabhu Vinayagam, Asia Pacific Managing Director, JCI)
?Effective communication is a key factor in preventing patient safety incidents. In any healthcare setting, communication failures lead to increases in patient harm, length of stay and resource use, as well as more intense caregiver dissatisfaction and more rapid turnover. Miscommunication often occurs between healthcare settings or during transition in care and can happen between variety of players including providers, healthcare team members, supporting ancillary staff and pharmacists. Some of the factors that increase the opportunity for communication errors include distraction and interruption, shift changes, hierarchy, differences in training among professionals, time pressure and workload.
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Patient Satisfaction vs. Patient Safety (Dr. Paul Chang, Vice President, Accreditation, Standards and Measurement, JCI, USA; Dr. Sandhya Majumdar, Deputy Director and Senior Specialist, Quality and Accreditation- Medical Affairs, Department and Clinical Governance, National University Hospital, Singapore; Dr. Alexander Chiu, Chief Manager, Hong Kong Hospital Authority; Mr. S Chandra, HR, Dr Reddy’s Labs)
Keeping patients free from harm in a healthcare setting is widely becoming one of the biggest healthcare issues today but the challenge is to further patient safety and patient satisfaction hand in hand. Hospitals should be able to provide care which meets or exceeds the expectations of the patients for quality service. Similar practices such as open communication among staff members and values like patient and family education can enhance both patient safety as well as patient satisfaction. However, there are times when patient safety and patient satisfaction do not go hand in hand. Restricted diets, isolation rooms, restraints, visitor restrictions are some examples which may cause patient dissatisfaction.
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Patient Safety 2020 (Professor Cliff Hughes, President, Elect ISQua, Australia; Egbert Schillings, CEO, World Innovation Summit for Health, Qatar; Professor Arpan Guha, Director of Education Innovation, Liverpool Health Partners; Capt. Usha Banerjee, Group Nursing Director, Apollo Hospitals; Dr. Rahul Kashayp, Assistant Professor of Anaesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, USA)
Without doubt, Scientific and technological advancements have revolutionized the world but have made the practice of medicine much more complex. The risks of health care are far too high compared to other potentially high-risk industries that have much better safety improvement records. The World Health Organization stamps patient safety an endemic concern. The goal of all hospitals and healthcare organizations should be develop their services to reduce and prevent inadvertent harm to patients. Tomorrow's dream should be commitment to patient safety worldwide and we should aim to strive towards ZERO preventable deaths by 2020.
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Technology and Patient Safety (Mr. Ven Manda, VP, Science, Technology & New Therapies, Medtronic India; Mr. Richard Guest, CEO, Siemens Technology, India; Mr. Fredrick Radencrantz, Business Development Director, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, ArjoHuntleigh Getinge Group, Germany; Mr. A Krishna Kumar, MD and CEO, Philips Electronics, India; Dr. Maurice Mars, Professor of E-Health, Nelson R Mandel School of Medicine, South Africa)
Nothing would be better if we use technology to create a seamless health care system, one where people and machines would work together to improve patient safety. This would bring about greater efficiency, be less expensive and at the same time improve treatment processes and we would be able to transfer health-related information quickly and accurately for enhancing safety. Patient safety is always a priority for health care providers. Over the centuries, new medical technologies and techniques have always supported this novel cause. The reach of technological continues to grow, changing the healthcare industries as it evolves.
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Economics of Patient Safety (Ms. Deborah K Gardener, International Scientific Affairs and Educational Manager for the Infection Prevention Division, 3M, USA; Dr. Anita Jain, India Editor, BMJ; Dr. BK Rana, Deputy Director, NABH; Dr. YP Bhatia, MD, Astron Hospitals and Healthcare Consultants)
Health systems have become aware of the frequency and additional cost of adverse events in healthcare. A wide range of interventions have been introduced to reduce the incidence of such events. In an effort to understand the true financial costs of preventive adverse events, extensive research has been conducted to examine the economics of patient safety in acute care. Improving patient safety should logically reduce costs and improve outcomes of patient care. Managers of health facilities are concerned with ‘the bottom line’—how improvements in patient safety might reduce costs or shortens average length of stay to enhance the facility’s financial performance.
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Professional Medical Associations and Road to Patient Safety (Dr. Jitendra B Patel, President, Indian Medial Association; Dr. Jean Marty, French Society of Critical Care, France; Dr. Anjan Datta, Past President, Indian Society of Anaesthesiologist; Dr. Shivakumar Iyer, President, Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine; Dr. SS Kamath, President, Elect Indian Academy of Paediatrics; Dr. KK Kalra, CEO, NABH; Dr. Alokendu Chatterjee, Past President, FOGSI, President, SAFOG)
?Patient safety affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide resulting in permanent injury, prolongation of hospital stay or even death. This global issue requires handholding by various stakeholders to share their perspectives and learn from each other. Various medical associations need to come together to discuss the issue of patient safety and adopt an appropriate charter on patient safety that they shall support implementation of in the various institutions in their contact.
5th International Conference on Transforming Healthcare through Information Technology- Day 1
Developments in HCIT
Healthcare IT is entering exciting times ahead. This session focussed on the latest happenings in Healthcare IT. The session commenced with a discussion by The Director of National Health portal on the Indian government’s initiatives, Suptendra Nath Sarbadhikari. The Head and Curator of MIT Media Labs, Khsitij Marwah spoke about the upcoming technologies and its use in Healthcare while DELL Services, Executive Director and Global Healthcare Practice head, Veera Ragahavan elaborated on cloud computing and its immense potential to scale up infrastructure solutions and add layers of effectiveness.
Deployment of HCIT in Clinical Care
Healthcare Information Technology must have specific applications in different clinical disciplines. In this session, the role of ICT in Ophthalmology, Geriatrics, Genetic Counseling, Surgery and Stroke were covered by experts from various countries. The session also highlighted how “Personalized Medicine” will soon be available through Tele-genetic Counselling. The increasing use of ICT in robotics was also covered. 15% of the population of Japan are senior citizens, and the use of ICT for providing them with healthcare was discussed by Jitsuzo Katsumata, Deputy General Administration Officer, Koma Tsukai Hospital, Japan. There was also a talk on “Extra Terrestrial Telemedicine”. Prof. Ronald C Merrell, Telemedicine Consultant to NASA demonstrated how the health of astronauts is looked after from the earth.
eHealth Around the World
The session on eHealth Around the World was conceived to give a truly global perspective on the deployment of HCIT. Representatives from South Africa and Europe such as Maurice Mars, Pofessor of Telehealth, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Zakiuddin Ahmed, CEO, e-Health Services, Karachi, Pakistan and others discussed the progress in their respective countries on the same. The Armed Forces Medical Services provide quality healthcare to our soldiers and ex-servicemen. The deployment of eHealth in this niche population was presented by Lt. General PP Varma, Deputy Chief Med, HQ of Integrated Ministry of Defence, India. The President of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth, representing more than 90 countries, also gave a special address on eHealth in Europe.
Thought Leaders Convergence: Panel Discussion
This session hosted primer guests from the world of Healthcare and IT who deliberated on issues and potential solutions for transforming healthcare with IT. The esteemed speakers included the MD of Microsoft India, Kiran Bajwa, MD of Oracle India, Sandeep Mathur and Vice President of HiMSS USA, John H Daniels.
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