ABSTRACT
Infrared technology allows hospitals to keep track of where their nurses are. Hundreds of hospitals use such systems--but some nurses say that they violate their privacy.
Subject(s)
Nursing Staff, Hospital/supply & distribution , Personnel Staffing and Scheduling Information Systems/instrumentation , Privacy , Efficiency, Organizational , Humans , Infrared Rays , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Patient Identification Systems , United StatesABSTRACT
Economic, regulatory, and competitive pressures compete for institutional resources, increasing the likelihood that critical delivery systems will be missed. Setting patient-centered priorities should now be the primary focus of the solution process. Risk assessment should work from the patient out, recognizing that the highest risk lies with components that most directly influence the care and health of patients. Any successful plan must include enough awareness and commitment to ensure the availability of funding and resources in a highly competitive environment. The remediation process involves both internal expertise and external entities, such as companies selling equipment, software, or hardware [8], with outside consultants if experts on year 2000 problems are not available internally. Aggressive pursuit of solutions to the year 2000 problem is essential to preventing severe difficulties at the turn of the century.
Subject(s)
Computer Systems/standards , Information Systems/standards , Patient-Centered Care/standards , Software , Appointments and Schedules , Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted/standards , Equipment Failure , Equipment and Supplies , Humans , Personnel Staffing and Scheduling Information Systems/instrumentation , Programming Languages , Risk Assessment , Therapy, Computer-Assisted/standards , Time , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Appropriate use of nursing resources in the pediatric hematology and oncology inpatient settings demands a patient acuity system that is easy to use and accurate, and that objectively measures nursing care needs of a specialized patient population. Structured survey of 13 comprehensive cancer centers and a review of the literature show no valid and reliable acuity tools for this pediatric population. The purpose of this project was to study the validity and reliability of a newly developed pediatric hematology and oncology acuity system designed to quantify patient care needs. A new acuity tool for this pediatric population was developed based on the patient classification tool used at Johns Hopkins Hospital Oncology Center (JHHOC). The levels of care from the JHHOC tool were adopted, with therapeutic indicators modified to reflect nursing diagnoses relevant to the pediatric inpatient. Nursing care hours required for each level of care were also identified. Validity was studied using a content validity index (CVI). Experts from the pediatric unit where the tool would be used were asked whether each therapeutic indicator was assigned to the correct level of care (1 thru 5) based on patient care hours. CVIs for items ranged from .5 to 1.0; the overall CVI for the tool was .93. Interrater reliability was studied using two raters from the unit. Data were collected for 150 patient observations on a 12-bed pediatric hematology and oncology inpatient and short-stay outpatient unit. The resulting Pearson correlation coefficient was r = .97 (P less than .001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
