Pharmacists and health information technology: Emerging issues in patient safety

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pharmacists and health information technology

T2 - Emerging issues in patient safety

AU - Fuji, Kevin T.

AU - Galt, Kimberly A.

N1 - Funding Information: The United States is in the middle of a ten year plan to develop and implement a nationwide electronic health information infrastructure that will allow authorized health care professionals to securely access relevant patient data from any location in the country at any time. In 2004, the President of the United States issued Executive Order 13335, to promote health information technology to improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, improve quality of care, and provide better information exchange for patients and physicians. By 2014 the President’s goal is for most Americans to have electronic health records. Through establishing a health information exchange and using a planned health IT architecture, health information could be readily exchanged between providers and patients if electronic records became standard. Readers are referred to the definitions and further reading on the subject (Berens, Galt & Paschal, 2007). As envisioned, the National Health Information Initiative in the United States will be a “series of cross-jurisdictional interconnected regional health information exchanges or organizations” (Pritts & Connor, 2007, p. 1): To help facilitate this initiative, a project was established by the federal government through a coordinated effort between the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. All U.S. states and territories were eligible to apply for competitive funding, and if successful, establish a Health Information Security and Privacy Committee (HISPC), or related effort in their respective states or territories. The vision driving the state HISPC model is to create the flexibility to electronically exchange patient authorized health care information, confidentially and securely between the patient/client and all appropriate persons involved in the health care process (Dimitropoulos, 2006). Core issues have come to light nationwide as states begin to work on these linkages and collaborations. Key issues that emerge are:

PY - 2008/9

Y1 - 2008/9

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=54849360500&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=54849360500&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10730-008-9075-4

DO - 10.1007/s10730-008-9075-4

M3 - Review article

C2 - 18803019

AN - SCOPUS:54849360500

VL - 20

SP - 259

EP - 275

JO - HEC Forum

JF - HEC Forum

SN - 0956-2737

IS - 3

ER -