VigiLanz Backs Safer Care: Answering the PCAST Call

When Dr. David Bates published the SafeCare study, the revelation that nearly one in four hospitalized patients experiences an adverse event shook the healthcare community. Even more concerning was the study’s finding that nearly a quarter of these events could have been prevented. Statistics like these are what keep us up at night – but we are encouraged by the recent momentum we are seeing in the national discussion around patient safety.

In September, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released their recommendations for improving patient safety in a new report, proposing nationwide initiatives to speed up the research, creation, and implementation of policies and technologies to enhance patient safety across the United States. This is the first time that patient safety has received this level of national attention, and we’re hopeful that this presidential call for change will spark a substantial and meaningful evolution within the industry.

The call is clear, and we’re ready to do our part. As dedicated advocates for safer care, we strongly believe that VigiLanz can and should play a central role in this transformation. With more than two decades at the forefront of data-driven patient care, we are well-positioned to fully support the four main pillars of the PCAST recommendations:

1. Federal leadership must make patient safety a top priority. 

Just as within a hospital culture of safety, our national leaders must listen to those on the frontlines, know the data, and demonstrate a visible commitment to active change. At VigiLanz, we understand the value of these kinds of cross-sector conversations, and believe that setting a consistent example at the national level will help to make healthcare safer and more secure for all.

2. All patients should receive evidence-based care to prevent harm and reduce risk. 

This idea is central to our mission as a company. Whether we’re reducing adverse drug events, facilitating early recognition of infections and outbreaks, or simplifying the capture and analysis of safety events, VigiLanz equips clinicians with clear and actionable data that supports adherence to evidence-based practices and standardizes patient care. We believe that implementing technologies to assist with medication management, predictive treatment, and preemptive harm detection is key to reducing risk and transforming patient safety on a national scale.

3. Collaborative care between providers and patients is essential for reducing disparities in medical errors and adverse events. 

At VigiLanz, everything we do centers around helping all patients and all clinicians thrive. Hospitals that leverage our real-time clinical surveillance and patient safety technology experience a long list of benefits, including a reduced burden on healthcare professionals. Our comprehensive data, streamlined workflows, and clinical rounding processes enable clinicians to not only provide more effective treatment, but to dedicate more hours in their day to direct patient care – creating a stronger and more informed partnership that ultimately leads to better outcomes across the board, as well as improvements in accountability, compliance, and overall patient safety.

4. We must accelerate the research and deployment of practices and technologies that advance safer care.

We’re constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to advancing safer care – and we’re proud to be pioneering the automatic capture of safety events, also known as autodetection, within our safety surveillance solution. This groundbreaking technology supports and expands on human reporting activities by using data from the electronic health record (EHR) to automatically identify safety incidents that may otherwise have been missed. This can help overcome common event reporting barriers and empower clinical teams to capture more events, learn from them, and more effectively reduce risk.

It’s clear that the recommendations outlined in the PCAST report have the potential to address some of healthcare’s biggest safety problems, and we’re ready to support this transformation in any way we can. We firmly believe that patient safety should be at the heart of every hospital’s innovation strategy – and with over two decades of experience in data-driven patient care, we know we can help drive this change and create a healthcare system that prioritizes patient safety for all.

Learn more about how our clinical surveillance and patient safety solutions are helping clinicians prevent harm, improve safety, and provide the highest quality patient care.