Florida Tech Joins in Grant to Improve Patient Care

– Florida Tech is participating in a $198,000 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant that aims to improve patient safety through the development of a
Web-based referral system. The university joins Health First and Brevard 2-1-1 in this endeavor to standardize patient care and facilitate the effective
exchange of health information across the continuum of care services and systems.

Florida Tech School of Management faculty, Dr. Judith Barlow and Dr. Deborah Carstens, will participate in the program as
system designer and evaluator respectively. “Human or medical errors often occur at points of transition. Patient information can be lost when a patient
moves from one facility to another, such as from acute to long-term facilities, and during hospital shift changes,” said Carstens.

The principal investigator is Health First’s Dr. Rosemary Laird, medical director of Health First’s Aging and Life Enrichment Services. Brevard 2-1-1
offers 2-1-1 dialing code for community-wide access to information on local governmental and social services.

Work under the grant begins November 5 with an organizational session to be held on campus.