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Device Integration Drives Patient Satisfaction and Increased Productivity for NCH Healthcare System By Helen Thompson, Chief Information Officer, NCH Healthcare System Medical devices are a critical part of the clinical workflow – especially in an acute care setting. The integration of these devices into the EHR is the next real frontier for all of us in healthcare IT. Our ability to do this integration at the edge is critical as we work to improve quality and while at the same time improving cost. These devices generate important medical data our clinical staff members rely on to manage their patients’ care. Having access to this data in real-time can alert clinicians to changes in patient status, which impacts the care we provide. Early last year, Nursing told us they would prefer to receive alerts on their communications devices instead of through our central monitoring system.
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We took action quickly. Earlier in the year, we started to incorporate innovative new technologies into our EHR. From this work, we knew that by connecting disparate medical devices to our EHR, we would create a twoway flow of data that could improve nursing workflow and access to real-time data.
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College of Healthcare Information Management Executives
Connecting medical devices We wanted a fully integrated approach to device interoperability that would enable our hospital to: Push data into our EHR platform and clinical communications devices Receive data from the EHR so our clinicians didn’t have to spend time on duplicative data entry; and Infuse data throughout our inpatient rooms to engage patients in their own care
INTEROPERABILITY SERIES Our technology partner, Cerner, had a solution to these challenges — The Cerner Smart Room™ powered by CareAware(™). The Cerner Smart Room is a collection of health care technology solutions that improve clinical workflows and engage patients in the process of care by bridging the gap between medical devices, clinical applications and real-time patient information through CareAware. Thus, we implemented solutions for real-time vitals collection, mobile nurse alerting, patient engagement, clinical dashboards, location equipment awareness, and digital room signage in 64 patient rooms at NCH North Naples Hospital. Tangible results Since implementation, we’ve seen tangible results from these technologies. For example, the automated documentation of Cerner’s real-time vitals collection solution helped our patient care technicians save more than 14 minutes per vitals round — a huge time savings they’ve noticed and appreciated. Our patient care technicians capture vitals three times per round, resulting in a time savings of 42 minutes per shift. Additionally, the gap in time between when vitals were taken and when data was charted into the EHR has been virtually eliminated, as the connectivity sends vitals data directly to the chart from the device in real-time. We’ve improved this latency gap by an average of
45 minutes – a huge improvement in data availability and patient safety. Real-time alerts As data is being sent through the Smart Room platform in real-time, our nurses are now receiving the necessary patient alerts immediately. Gone are the days of a central monitoring unit that called in patient alerts to the unit; instead, communication devices are used to ensure the right nurse receives the right alert at the right time. Improving patient engagement Finally, implementation of Cerner Smart Room technology, which includes Cerner’s interactive patient system for education, information and entertainment, has helped to transform the patient experience at our organization.. Based on data gathered from our Discharge Survey Results, patient satisfaction ratings on floors with the Cerner Smart Room technology has improved by more than 24% from the previous year – signaling a huge improvement in patient engagement. In summation, we’ve found that Smart Rooms have made a huge impact at NCH, helping to create a world class environment to work as a clinician and visit as a patient.
www.cio-chime.org | SEPTE,MBER 2013 | CIO Connection
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