Hays
Medical Center Achieves Patient Safety, Better Outcomes with
Reporting Tools
(12/17/2008)
MEDITECH's reporting capabilities are
continuing to catch the attention of our customers. The
powerful tools are fostering proactive decision-making,
supporting clinical and financial guidance, and optimizing
operational efficiency.
Earlier this year, we told you about the reporting successes
a few of our customers have achieved using MEDITECH. One of
these customers is Hays Medical Center (Hays, KS), who has
been a long-term advocate of using MEDITECH's reporting
capabilities.
"With MEDITECH's reporting capabilities, we are able to
slice and dice data into customizable formats, meeting each
of our departments' unique needs," says Jim Rorstrom,
director of pharmacy. "For example, in the Pharmacy,
reporting enables our staff to be more patient-focused,
rather than task-focused. Patient-specific information can be
located more easily though drill-down and filtering
capabilities."
Improving
Patient Safety and Clinical Outcomes
Hays is using reporting to prevent medical errors and to
guide care teams. For example, by combining data from
MEDITECH's Bedside Verification, eMAR, and Pharmacy products
with their Pyxis system, Hays is able to monitor drug
dispensing activity to ensure consistency between orders
placed in MEDITECH and medication taken from the Pyxis
dispensing system.
"Reporting on data gathered from our Patient Care System
to Pyxis confirms that only the medications ordered from the
physician are being dispensed," says Rorstrom. "If
there are any outliers, such as an unauthorized staff member
dispensing medications, or any other discrepancies, we are
notified and we can take the necessary steps to address the
issue."
Numerous other reports are used to monitor the quality of
care throughout the hospital, ensuring care teams are
following strict guidelines from the Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services (CMS). The reports are created with
the help of products from the Institute for Health Metrics.
"Hays has a risk management and performance improvement
committee led by several of our physicians, who use our
quality reports to proactively monitor our care teams'
quality of care," states Judy Purdy, director of risk
management. "Our efforts have led Hays to exceed CMS'
and Press Ganey's quality indicator benchmarks."
Taking the lead on quality and transparency initiatives, Hays
publishes quality data on its public Web site. "Eventually,
all hospitals will have to make quality data available to the
public, in order to receive full CMS reimbursements,"
says Purdy. "We are excited to be a pioneer in this
initiative."
Adjusting to
Reimbursement Regulations while Improving the Bottom Line
CMS reimbursement regulations are quickly becoming a major
concern for health care organizations. Since October 2007,
hospitals have been required to follow changes in Diagnosis-Related
Group (DRG) coding—the system used to determine hospital
reimbursement rates based on the patient's medical condition.
The DRG system now has three indicators associated with each
code/hospital stay—denoting no complications, moderate
complications, or critical complications.
"Using MEDITECH's Case Mix reports, we are able to
proactively assess our CMS reimbursement amounts," says
Bart Kenton, director of decision support and finance. "We
can analyze where we stand at the end of this year with the
DRG system relative to last year, to see how our bottom line
is affected."
In addition to this hospital-wide analysis, Hays also uses
the reports to monitor the level of DRG codes assigned to
patients throughout each unit.
"We use the Case Mix reports to analyze trends in care,
especially for those admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU),"
says Kenton. "Based on the information presented, we can
assess whether care teams are admitting patients with lower
DRG codes into the ICU. This ensures ICU resources are
allocated solely to critical care patients."
Promoting
Efficiency in the Operating Room
Hays has also been improving Operating Room efficiency and
increasing patient satisfaction.
"We are monitoring block utilization as well as block
time utilization, helping the hospital to significantly limit
the number of delayed start-times," states Bill Norris,
director of surgery. "As a result, Hays is achieving
higher capacity of its surgical blocks."
Limiting delayed start-times translates into cost-efficiencies
as well as higher patient satisfaction.
"Surgical procedures, no matter how big or small, are
nerve-wracking for patients and family members. We do our
best to limit anxiety by ensuring procedures start on
schedule," says Norris.
Achieving
New Reporting Initiatives Hospital-Wide
Although Hays is already undertaking an impressive array of
reporting efforts, they still hope to pursue new avenues by
extending reporting efforts to all areas of the organization.
"We want to continue improving our ability to
efficiently push data to the right person in the most useful
format, and ensure decisions are made proactively rather than
retrospectively," states Bill Overbey, senior vice
president, chief information officer, and chief financial
officer. "MEDITECH's reporting solution aids in these
efforts, since all information is captured and made available
in real time."
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com