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The Institute of Medicine (IOM), the federal government's leading advisor on medicine and public health issues, showcased BWH and its use of groundbreaking technology to reduce medical errors for health care policy decision makers this month. IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, the former dean of Harvard School of Public Health and provost of Harvard University, brought a delegation of top U.S. House and Senate staff to BWH, which leads the nation in applying technology to reduce medical errors and improve quality of care.
Andy Whittemore, MD, chief medical officer, welcomed the delegation with an overview of the hospital's $10 million investment in eMAR and computerized physician order entry (CPOE). “If supermarkets can scan a bar code on a box of Rice Crispies and link that to a shopper's credit card and an inventory database, then hospitals and the health care industry should be able to do the same thing,” Whittemore said before providing the visitors with a first-hand look at eMAR and CPOE during tours of the Emergency Department, inpatient units, Pharmacy, the NICU and STRATUS.
Following the tour, Fineberg said, “Brigham and Women's Hospital showed us how the intelligent application of information technology can help reduce errors and improve patient care.”