Can patient photos help cut medical errors?

In some cases, hospital patients may get a test or treatment intended for someone else because the doctor mistakenly put an order in the wrong electronic chart. In 2009, a quality-improvement program at Children's Hospital Colorado found that such misplaced orders were the second-most common reason that patients received care not meant for them. To help cut those types of errors, the hospital changed its computer system so that each order for a test or treatment triggered an "order verification screen," which included a photo of the child in question. And the move seems to have paid off, Hyman's team reports in the journal Pediatrics.