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Help the Faculty, Staff, and Student Leaders Help You!
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Aggies. F.A.C.T. w ill w elcome you to the University
and clieck on how you are doing during your first
semester at Texas A&M University,
Remember to update your local phone number and
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YOU ON OUR V.I.P. LIST.
Aggie Orientation
Leader Program
Student
life
Department of Student Life
Student Life Orientation
^ONE c1
THURSDAY
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All Ladies 18 & up FREE!
$ 1.00 bar drinks until 11:00
$ 1.00 pints all night
$ 2.00 Tap Teas all night
696-5570
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COMEDIAN DOUG MORELAND • DEAN SETLZER
and DUB MILLER singing the “Fightin’Texas Aggie Song”
SATURDAY. SEPT. 15.2001
WOLF PEN CREEX
Discounted Advanced
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MSC Box Office
(Aggie Bucks Accepted)
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Fitzwilly’s
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Nation
Page 14
THE BATTALION
Thursday, September
Hospitals using expensive
technology to reduce
medication blunders
Gas
trsday, Sep
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — At
Cooper Hospital in Camden,
patients do not have to worry
about a misread doctor’s chick
en scratch giving them the
wrong drug or dose.
Prescriptions are typed into a
computer.
At the nation’s veterans hos
pitals, bar code scanners identi
fy the patient’s medicine and
also ensure that it won’t cause
any harm.
And at Jersey Shore Medical
Center in Neptune, a pharmacy
robot reads electronic medical
charts, pulls bar-coded medicine
from stock shelves, makes labels
and sorts them into labeled bins,
eliminating human error.
Under the microscope after a
damning 1999 report about
errors killing thousands of
patients each year, hospitals
across America are testing a
wide range of solutions. They
are trying everything from better
training and new medication
handling procedures to installing
sophisticated, multimillion-dol-
lar technology meant to catch
mistakes that harried doctors and
nurses sometimes miss.
“I think all hospitals are try
ing to do something to make the
use of medication safer,”
although many still have not laid
out the money for pricey, high-
tech solutions, said Dr. David
Classen, a consultant and hospi
tal internist.
The most complex systems
can cost up to $5 million, plus
millions more for customizing,
staff training and maintenance,
said Classen, who works for
First Consulting Group of
Long Beach, Calif., which
helps hospitals choose comput
erized systems.
Most hospitals making big
investments today are focusing
on computerized physician order
entry (CPOE) systems, which
can eliminate common causes of
confusion: illegible handwriting,
drugs with similar names, misin
terpreted abbreviations and deci
mal points that are not noticed,
resulting in patients getting an
excessive dose.
He estimates that up to 10
percent of U.S. hospitals now
have such systems.
Cooper Hospital-University
Medical Center in Camden went
to a computerized order entry
system three years ago, and
within two weeks made every
doctor, intern and resident stop
writing paper orders.
That has eliminated all errors
because of illegibility, said Dr.
Simon Simaha, a practicing
physician who is vice president
for information technology.
Bar-coding systems use
handheld scanners — waved
over bar codes on the nurse’s
ID badge, patient’s wristband
and medication packet — to
link information from each
with a computer database. That
can catch everything from wor
risome side effects and look-
alike drug names to lab tests
indicating the dosage should be
changed.
Veterans Affairs medical cen
ters across the country have
implemented them. The VA hos
pitals in East Orange and Lyons,
N.J., upgraded theirs with auto
mated, continuous backup of all
information onto personal com
puters, so if the computer sys
tem crashes, the medical staff
prices
tumble
be
T
do<
has current informal
Robotic systems
cies use conveyor
coded stock in special
and sophisticated sof
pull medication doses
orders a doctor or pi
entered into a compi
robots sort drugs into
each patient before
checked by a human pf
Besides reducing
errors, the systems give p
cists more time to ad
on medication choices.
After the 1999 Institute
Medicine repiort on hosp
errors, a number of organ
tions demanded action by
hospitals. In addition to the i
of life, the mistakes added
estimated $2 billion to
nation’s health care bill,
institute repiort said, A r
study this year challenged
institute’s numbers.
Since the 1999 report,
American Hospital Association
has sent all 5,000 U.S. acute
care hospitals a lengthy ques
tionnaire that helps administra
tors spot every procedure that
could lead to an error and
determine the best way to
change it.
the
the
the
the
NEW YORK (AP)
prices tumbled in mi
of the nation Wi
d.i> .ittcr attacks on tl
Trade Center
Pentagon, as government
cials threatened acti
price gougers and
reassure motorists
quale supplies,
U.S. Energy
Spencer Abraham
is no indication of
that should justify
spikes to a gallon Oft
"There’s been no si
ruption to justify !
prices,” Abraham said
He said the Envj
Protection Agency liftedi
mer clean air
requirements on We
to avert any supply
The standards, it
ease air pollution
during the sum
scheduled to expire
Gas prices soared
on fears of shortages,
mg skirmishes at
several states as
raced to get to the
A 78-year-old man in
Kan., was arrested for
vated assault after he
ly pulled a pellet
another customer.
But gas suppliers
off high prices Wet
as many states said ll
would investigate rej
gouging.
“Those j
ttacks wou
words of Ja
Yamamoto
I'earl Harbc
T fear at
.waken a s
him with a
“And so
The Fori
“As civ
simply car
that wouh
four airph
cently goii
and turn
mass dest
know the
Tuesday’s
American
Study: People with heart disease ma]|
extend lifespan by taking aspirin
“Th<
A meric
epitom
democi
know
people,
courag
must r
how pr
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defend
The Dallas
CHICAGO (AP) — People who take
aspirin regularly to reduce their short
term heart attack risk may also be sub
stantially extending their lives, new
research suggests.
The study of 6,174 adults with sus
pected heart disease found that regular
aspirin users faced a 33 percent lower risk
of dying during a follow-up period aver
aging three years than patients who did
not take aspirin.
The findings extend the known benefits
for heart patients in taking aspirin at least
every other day, which previous studies
have shown can reduce the risk of heart
attack and the short-term risk of death in
heart attack sufferers, said the authors, led
by Dr. Patricia Gum of The Cleveland
Clinic.
"Up until now it really had not been very
well established” that aspirin had long-term
survival benefits for heart patients, said co
author Dr. Michael Lauer, clinical research
director in the clinic’s cardiovascular medi
cine department.
The study appeared in Wednesday’s
Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Lynn Smaha, a cardiologist at
Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, Pa., said patients
often ask him if they should regularly take
aspirin, which improves blood flow through
the arteries by making it less sticky and less
likely to clot.
For those who have had previous heart
attacks, "it’s pretty clear that that’s an
appropriate recommendation,” said Smaha,
past president of the American Heart
Association.
The new study "lends credence to the
possibility that long-term aspirin therapy
may be of significant benefit” even for
patients with no previous heart attacks,
Smaha said.
Lauer stressed that patients should con
sult with their doctors about whether to start
taking aspirin on a regular basis.
Study participants were male andfei
patients who underwent ultrasounds ca
hoi. .tnlioer.ims .tiul stress tests toevjta
suspected heart problems. Included 4
2,310 people who were taking about!
aspirin daily or every other day at testt|
and 3,864 nonusers.
There were 276 deaths during abi
three years of follow up. While there#4
about equal numbers of deaths in M
groups, the aspirin users were olden™
they were tested aged 62 on aveti|
compared with 56 for the nonusers andi
more diagnosed heart disease. Adjusi
for those factors, the authors found aspil
users were 33 percent less likely tos
than nonusers.
The greatest benefits were seem
patients who were physically unfit, M
age 50 or who had known heart disetl
Lauer said most of the deaths likely"!
heart-related, though exact causes
not available.
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Fri & Sal. 11:00 am to 11:00 pm
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1 have spoken
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