H&HN recognizes nine organizations with two classes of awards. For the Innovator Awards, a joint project of Accenture, CHIME, Cisco Systems and McKesson Corp., a panel of 22 hospital and information technology leaders evaluated essays describing a specific IT project and named three winners and three finalists. For the inaugural Supply Chain Innovator Awards, a joint project of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management and Materials Management in Health Care, a panel of six materials management leaders judged essays on projects demonstrating innovation in the supply chain using IT. One winner and two finalists were named.
A team of clinicians and other professionals redesigned and automated the medication reconciliation process to reduce steps from 42 to eight and improve process efficiency by 81 percent. The new method ensures that patients and clinicians are aware of the medications with which the patient arrived, those that were prescribed during the hospital stay and those prescribed to take at home. The medication reconciliation process eliminated illegibility issues, transcription errors and duplication of efforts.
The organization’s Advanced ICU incorporates video and photo technology with provider order entry, medication administration records, real-time documentation charting, and medical device data and patient monitoring. The system uses a variety of components and internally and externally developed technologies, and can oversee the care of up to 90 critical patients at one time. The organization has reduced mortality rates, lengths of stay, costs per case and complication rates while increasing admission capacity. In addition, nurse, physician, patient and family satisfaction rates have improved.
Health Quest developed a multidisciplinary wireless strategy for implementing bar-code-assisted medication administration at the point of care. The strategy includes wireless, cellular phones, pagers, two-way radios, voice, biomedical telemetry, and personnel and equipment tracking. Since this project was introduced, the medical center has documented more than 167 adverse drug events, two of which would have resulted in sentinel events. Unexpected benefits included cellular and software vendors renegotiating their existing contracts in anticipation of using the wireless network and increased cell phone reception as well as expanded Internet access.
Challenged to replace a legacy system and add additional functionality, Crozer-Keystone Health System developed an in-house application that combined bed tracking and administration, and patient transport systems at three hospitals. The application allows users to check and report job status using voice recognition. Environmental services and transport employees receive pages notifying them of job assignments. Managers get an electronic alert when employees haven’t responded to a page with a defined time period. The bed tracking module gives an overview of each room with indicators such as sex of patient, cleaning status of room and transport status of patient. Users can drill down to a more detailed description of each room.
Texas Health Resources formed a committee to develop a strategy for adopting an electronic health record. To increase participation and simplify communication, an application was created that allows participants to view and respond to survey questions and enables an administrator to manage and disseminate information, and export survey results to a presentation. The group is able to respond via PDAs or PCs. Because committee members find the application flexible and easy to use, they provide more timely feedback on specific topics.
In its emergency department, Skaggs Community Health Center implemented CCOW, a context management tool that enables physicians to smoothly move among disparate clinical applications. It speeds up the computerized processes and increases the staff’s accuracy and comfort with the applications. CCOW relieves staff of navigating multiple systems while caring for the patient.
Aiming to reduce the 26 steps in the supply order, distribution, charting, charging and replenishment process, West Penn Allegheny Health System looked to grocery stores as a model. After consulting with end users, the organization installed electronic supply cabinets that interfaced with a materials management information system to automatically send orders to manufacturers and distributors. Then, the health system consolidated vendors and standardized products. The order and replenishment process was reduced to six steps, and customer satisfaction increased to 92 percent from 72 percent.
The 10th Medical Support Squadron centralized requisition, receiving, stocking, management and distribution of all pharmaceuticals used to support three military treatment facilities. Two dispensing robots fill all prescriptions, while logisticians use PDAs to scan bar codes to take inventory. Inventory is updated in real time in the materials management information system, enabling electronic ordering of supplies for next-day delivery. The delivered items are then scanned, generating a receiving report and charging end users. Since launching the system, prescription wait times have decreased by 40 percent.
Mercy’s Resource Optimization and Innovation (ROi) division developed a pharmaceutical repackaging and distribution infrastructure. Integrated medication cabinets record transactions and build replenishment orders. When shipments arrive, unit dose bar-coded medications are produced for hospital use, then electronically merged with manually repackaged medications and staged in sealed totes with cabinet location labels. Since implementation, pharmacist time associated with distributive functions has declined, while time spent on clinical activities on the nursing floors has doubled.
This article 1st appeared in the July 2006 issue of HHN Magazine.
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