Healthcare Analytics Support Improve Patient Safety At Regional West Medical Center Healthcare performance analytics can be effectively applied to issues beyond just improving patient care processes, as Regional West Medical Center (RWMC) in Scottsbluff, Nebraska has experienced firsthand. According to Shirley Kodel, RWMC’s Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care, they have leveraged the technologies of analytics to improve patient safety and protect reimbursements by ensuring compliance with payor and regulatory medical error identification and prevention requirements, while also increase compliance with the use of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE). After realizing that information on Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) was neither readily accessible nor in a usable format, the staff compiled a list of key measures of safety performance, including medication bar code scans, doses ordered of Naloxone (given to counteract narcotics overdoses), and other events they deemed related to adverse drug interactions. Using enterprise intelligence technology, RWMC then collected the information on each of those events from different sources into one easy-to-understand medication safety scorecard. Once they were able to view the enterprise intelligence data in whatever way was most helpful, whether as aggregate hospital-wide data or individual record specifics by nurse, date/time or medication type, the information could be used to evaluate performance and effect change. The next step for RWMC was to implement a standardized, automated system for reviewing and documenting the results, which has yielded insight into performance and trends, and allows them to fine-tune best practices as problems arise. After realizing that information on Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) was neither readily accessible nor in a usable format, the staff compiled a list of key measures of safety performance, including medication bar code scans, doses ordered of Naloxone (given to counteract narcotics overdoses), and other events they deemed related to adverse drug interactions. Using enterprise intelligence technology, RWMC then collected the information on each of those events from different sources into one easy-to-understand medication safety scorecard.
Replacing what was once a time-consuming manual process with the degree of automation analytics provides has been very cost-effective, and because the data is no longer stored in individual silos across the organization, it is now accessible by anyone who needs it and can use it to improve patient outcomes. Furthermore, by demonstrating the benefits of applying healthcare performance analytics and CPOE to medication errors in the Emergency Department, which is 100% CPOE compliant, the results are boosting CPOE compliance rates among clinicians in other departments. After realizing that information on Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) was neither readily accessible nor in a usable format, the staff compiled a list of key measures of safety performance, including medication bar code scans, doses ordered of Naloxone (given to counteract narcotics overdoses), and other events they deemed related to adverse drug interactions. Using enterprise intelligence technology, RWMC then
collected the information on each of those events from different sources into one easy-to-understand medication safety scorecard.
Read more about the use of healthcare performance by visiting McKesson online and reading Regional West Uses Analytics to Improve Safety and Protect Reimbursement, by Shirley Knodel, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President for Patient Care, Regional West Medical Center.