IHM's Infection Alert Product Provides MEDITECH Customers with Early Detection Indicators to Prevent Infection

Are nosocomial infections tapping into your reimbursement and increasing your patients' Lengths of Stay? To help MEDITECH customers more effectively monitor patients at risk for infection, the Institute for Health Metrics (IHM) is pleased to announce the availability of a new product called Infection Alert (IA). Infection Alert compiles clinical information from across the MEDITECH system, identifies early detection indicators, and provides health care professionals with a daily report emphasizing those patients at risk for infection, ultimately helping to prevent such infections from occurring. 

Perhaps most important, IHM does all this by extracting data from the MEDITECH system, without implementing software and without burdening staff in any way.

"Our goal at IHM has been to assist hospitals in the continuous quality of care for each patient over the course of their stay," explains Paulette DiAngi, PhD, RN, CPHQ, chief clinical information officer, and product manager at IHM. DiAngi stresses the importance of keeping all clinicians treating a patient well-informed and up-to-date on his or her condition.

IHM's Infection Alert product gathers current information on abnormal clinical parameters to help clinicians prioritize care reviews. As a result, clinicians can be more proactive about those patients at risk, helping them reduce the risk of infection. 

IHM's Infection Alert product offers:

• Detailed individual patient clinical information in 24-, 48-, and 72-hour displays (e.g. weekend views on Monday morning using the 72-hour window) 
• An overview of patients who meet clinical indicators of abnormal temperature, white blood cell count, cultures, culture results, and antibiotics 
• Identification of all patients on a ventilator, central line, urinary catheter, or precautions 
• Patient-level drill-down, including a listing of roommates and all locations the patient was assigned to during a particular hospitalization 
• Elimination of manual chart review to gather data for prioritization 
• Monthly totals of device days by specific device and unit. 

The Infection Alert report above lists all patients with Alerts in the last 72 hours.

Infection Alert saves staff crucial time by compiling data across multiple sources and making it available through a single view. Information available to hospital personnel goes beyond data found on their Infection Control Desktop, helping them target those patients requiring immediate interventions or changes to their current care plans. Furthermore, health care organizations can more aggressively monitor at-risk practices, such as prolonged use of catheters. By adjusting practices to prevent infections, hospitals are also able to maximize their revenue by reducing their nosocomial infection rate. 

"The Infection Alert product will help show hospitals the big picture of infection within their organizations," states DiAngi. "By presenting clinicians and physicians with a list of patients at risk for infection, and by more closely monitoring and analyzing those patients who have contracted infections, health care organizations can more proactively address these risks before they become a reality."

For more information on Infection Alert, please contact Chris Wilson, IHM marketing director at chris.wilson@healthmetrics.org.