Patient Safety at the Bedside: Prevent Medical Errors with RFID and Bar Coding Case Study on CD-ROM

Patient Safety at the Bedside: Prevent Medical Errors with RFID and Bar Coding examines how Pittsburgh's St. Clair Hospital prevents over 5,000 medical errors every year at the point of care. Through a “dynamic duo” of bar coding and RFID, St. Clair's has measurably improved its medication administration and lab specimen collection processes, resulting in increased patient safety at the bedside. Coupled with the hospital's dedication to the Five Rights of Medication Administration, St. Clair's continues to find better ways to use technology to prevent errors and increase patient safety.

In an intensive case study, Tom Ague, EVP/COO and Richard Schaeffer, VP/CIO will walk your staff through the processes that led to creating a patient safety technology initiative that has won national recognition.

• Understand the technology behind bar coding and RFID
• Learn how to train staff to properly use patient-safety technology
• Be able to discuss the implementation steps of patient-safety technologies like bar coding and RFID
• Apply technology to the Five Rights of Medication Administration
• Properly implement bar code point-of-care procedures

About the Speakers

Tom Ague
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
St. Clair Hospital

Thomas Ague joined St. Clair Hospital in 1986 as Vice President and, in 1991, was promoted to the position of Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer.

As EVP & COO of St. Clair Hospital, he is responsible for the daily operations of a 331 bed community hospital with specialties in Open Heart Surgery, Oncology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopedic Surgery, Pulmonary and Rehabilitation medicine.

Mr. Ague has been instrumental in helping the hospital receive the 2006 Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety™ from HealthGrades, an award that has been achieved for three consecutive years. For the past five years, St. Clair Hospital has been named as one of Best 100 Places to work in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Ague holds a Bachelors Degree in Pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters Degree in Public Management, Health System Operations from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Richard Schaeffer
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
St. Clair Hospital

Richard Schaeffer joined St. Clair Hospital in 1986 and is currently Vice President and CIO, responsible for establishing strategic IT direction for the hospital. During his 20+ years of healthcare industry experience he has served in numerous healthcare IT management positions.

Recently, Mr. Schaeffer has been focused on St. Clair Hospital's strategic advancement toward being a fully digital hospital. He oversees a number of projects aimed at migrating the hospital toward a paperless environment using mobile, handheld, wireless devices at the point of care. Mr. Schaeffer spearheads the systems implementation of handheld technology at the hub of all bedside safety initiatives.

The CD includes the audio of the presentation, the slides prepared by the speaker and a .pdf file of the slides for printing. Your computer does need an audio component to use this CD.