January 28, 2013 John DeGaspari
article
Beaumont Health System, a three-hospital regional academic health system in the Detroit, Mich. area, is engaged in a process improvement plan involving the Kaizen performance improvement methodology. Kaizen, also known as continuous improvement, is a long-term approach with a goal of achieving small, incremental changes in processes to improve efficiency and quality.
December 18, 2012 by Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
When the University of Missouri Health System sought to optimize its bedside documentation workflows, it chose to enhance its current medication administration devices to allow mobile point-of-care documentation, an innovation that has led to a dramatic advance in speed to documentation of patient data, ultimately improving patient care.
November 12, 2012 Michael Kamer
article
Saint Luke’s Health System, a 10-hospital network providing primary, acute, tertiary and chronic care throughout the Kansas City, Mo. area, implemented a single sign-on solution paired with thin clients that it says gives its physicians more face time with their patients.
November 1, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
As Hurricane Sandy pounded coastal areas, its enormous breadth put hospitals in jeopardy throughout the Tri-State region. In Newburgh, N.Y., located on the banks of the Hudson River about 60 miles north New York City, sustained winds of 40 to 60 miles per hour and gusts of 100 miles per hour downed trees and caused local power outages. Cletis Earle, vice president and CIO of St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, a two-campus system with a 242-bed hospital in Newburgh and a second facility in nearby Cornwall, N.Y., described how his hospital fared during the storm and his view on disaster preparations.
October 22, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
When the University of Missouri Health System sought to optimize its bedside documentation workflows, it chose to enhance its current medication administration devices to allow mobile point-of-care documentation, an innovation that has led to a dramatic advance in speed to documentation of patient data, ultimately improving patient care.
October 10, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
Trying to predict a hospital's inpatient nurse staffing needs is a tough day-to-day challenge that involves matching often unpredictable patient demand to the nurse resources needed to care for those patients. Case in point: the Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy health system, a 31-hospital network serving Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, a hospital system that ranges from critical care hospitals with an average census of perhaps five to 10 patients a day to large tertiary care facilities. In March, 2011, Mercy implemented enterprise-wide web-based scheduling software that has significantly reduced the guesswork involved in its inpatient nurse staffing allocation.
October 4, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
There’s no doubt that the ability of hospitals to manage large data sets has resulted in fundamental improvements in patient care delivery. Physicians and nurses have access to data to measure their performance in a way that is actionable to improve the lives of the patients. Yet timing is everything, and data that can make a significant difference in patient care before discharge is wasted if it reaches the clinician well after the patient has left the hospital. Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has addressed this care gap with a short-cycle measurement dashboard, a project focused on coordinating the use of the electronic medical record to provide caregivers with actionable information on their performance that result in better patient care before discharge.
October 3, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Organizations are working on a multitude of initiatives to prepare for greater contractual risk for population management, while also moving toward value-based care initiatives. In this new era of accountable healthcare, a new role, the chief integration officer, is beginning to take shape to link hospitals and providers in the care continuum.
September 28, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Cook Children’s Medical Center, a 428-bed facility in Fort Worth, Texas, has achieved wide adoption of an electronic barcoding system that verifies that medication delivery is correct before pediatric patients receive it. The hospital reports that recent scan rates of medications and patients before treatment are more than 97 percent.
September 23, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
The University of South Alabama Children’s and Women’s Hospital, located in Mobile, Alabama, is pushing ahead to optimize medication administration safety through the strategic implementation of key information systems
September 17, 2012
news
HIMSS Analytics (Chicago) recognizes Fort HealthCare in Fort Atkinson, Wis. with its Stage 7 Award. The Stage 7 award represents attainment of the highest level on the Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model (EMRAM), which is used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.
August 18, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Presbyterian Health Services’ Melanie Van Amsterdam, M.D., talks about the groundbreaking Hospital at Home program that she and her clinician and administrative colleagues have created and are evolving forward in the Albuquerque area, a program whose patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness results have national implications for population health and care management initiatives health system-wide.
