Sunday, February 28, 2010
By Debra Erdley, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Nearly a decade after it kicked into high gear with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the race to develop reliable ways to detect and identify biological and chemical threats is bearing fruit for Pittsburgh entrepreneurs. Read more
MediCenter’s straight-forward design makes it simple for hospitals to get going. Our project management team has an easy-to-follow checklist of items for hospitals to review. These items include operational aspects that ensure administrative, legal, and clinical issues are addressed.
The IT implementation of the MediCenter service is straightforward as well. In less than a week, Health Monitoring Systems’ team can have the MediCenter Web Reconciliation service working for you.
To support successful incorporation of MediCenter into routine work processes, Health Monitoring Systems offers MediCenter as a distinct set of services. These include:
With the Automated Medication History and Medication Reconciliation Services, hospitals can use MediCenter’s web-based interface to view and manage patient medication history. This lowers the cost of deployment for hospitals and the bar of entry for facilities to begin automation of the medication reconciliation process.
The Medication Sync Integration Service provides a way to distribute information regarding medication history to other areas of the hospital, including pharmacy and inpatient admissions to ensure that the entire team has the information they need to provide the best care possible.
In 2008, Health Monitoring Systems had connected its 300th hosptial to the EpiCenter System. At the time, this was the largest health information exchange in the country.
While explaining this milestone to Kimberly Lyons-Neel, a hospital executive, lightening struck. Ms. Lyons-Neel immediately grasped the significance of Health Monitoring Systems’ large health information exchange. “You know what would be really great? If you could get information to the nurses about patients’ medication. These new JCAHO requirements are really hard on nursing.”
With that conversation, MediCenter was born.
MediCenter provides valuable health information at the point of care. Here, where the information is needed most, it can positively affect clinical decision making and the quality of care. By leveraging the infrastructure already established at Health Monitoring Systems, MediCenter is a demonstration of effective, affordable health information exchange.
MediCenter represents a significant step forward in how healthcare thinks about health information exchange.
MediCenter improves medication list accuracy, increases nursing efficiency, and demonstrates clinical significance. The end result is an improvement in operating costs of about $300,000.
Improvement in operating costs is due to reductions in nursing time and adverse drug event rate.
Hospitals are inherently complex. As a reference, a 250 bed facility with 40,000 emergency department visits and 12,000 inpatient admissions would realize a savings of nearly $200K in nursing costs during the course of a year.
Similarly, the same facility should expect a reduction in the ADE rate. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports that ADE rates range between 2 to 7 per 100 admissions. At the same time, the cost per ADE is estimated between $2,000 and $9,000.
By helping decrease missed dosages, duplicated therapy, and drug-drug interactions, MediCenter should help reduce the ADE rate by .2 per 100 admissions. Using a below-average ADE cost of $4,500, the facility should expect a savings of about $100,000 annually in ADE related expenses.
In total, the reference facility using MediCenter should realize $300,000 in operating savings per year while improving patient safety and the quality of healthcare delivery.
Health Monitoring Systems launched the MediCenter medication reconciliation service in 2009 with the help and support of over 25 hospitals that provided invaluable guidance in determining the needs of busy emergency department clinicians.
Following our successful initial service launch, we are seeking 10 facilities to demonstrate leadership in defining a workable, efficient model for emergency department medication reconciliation. The goal is to repeat and then refine the early successes in:
In recognition of the significant contribution that these 10 trial facilities will make, Health Monitoring Systems will provide the following benefits:
Contact us to see if a MediCenter Trial makes sense for your hospital. You can reach us at 1-866-231-7250 ext. 2 or by email at trial@hmsinc.com.