Actor Dennis Quaid gave a passionate appeal for hospitals to implement electronic medical records and advanced technologies in order to prevent medical errors at the 2009 Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society conference in Chicago yesterday. Quaid relayed how in 2007, his 10-day-old twins nearly died after they were mistakenly given 1,000 times more of the blood thinner drug heparin than intended at a Los Angeles hospital. The near-lethal dose caused massive hemorrhaging. The mistake was attributed to very similar packaging of different heparin bottles intended for infants and adults. The twins are now healthy.

Quaid believes that technologies such as computer physician-order entry and bar coding would have reduced the chance of confusing drug packaging. Since the incident, Quaid and his wife have started the Quaid Foundation to promote awareness of the need for more information technology as a way to prevent medical errors.

As part of the Administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package, $20 billion is intended for investment in healthcare IT. Government funding will be used to promote adoption of electronic medical records, increase use of computer physician-order entry systems, and create health information exchanges to better share healthcare data among providers.

Next time you are hospitalized or see your doctor, ask the provider what drugs you are receiving and, if they are not using an electronic medical record system, why not.

Have more ideas for preventing medical errors in hospitals? Share them with others at Healia Communities.

_{Photo: NathanF, Flickr, Creative Commons}