Early Bird Catches the Enhancement: St. Joseph's Hospital Discovers Big Benefits in MEDITECH's New Wireless Phlebotomy Functionality
(10/22/2008)

St. Joseph's Hospital (Elmira, NY) has achieved a new milestone in its efforts to deliver integrated, high-quality care, as it recently became the first MAGIC customer to take advantage of MEDITECH's new Wireless Phlebotomy enhancement. Using this technology, the organization can now streamline phlebotomists' workflows by displaying real-time orders on a wireless handheld device—thus enabling caregivers to quickly and accurately document and label specimens at the patient bedside.

St. Joseph's first heard about this enhancement during a demonstration at MEDITECH's 2007 CIO Technology Workshop. "We were intrigued, and wanted to learn more about how this functionality could help us to automate our phlebotomists' workloads," says Leonard Kaner, director of I.S. at St. Joseph's Hospital. "We were slated for a 5.61 update; however, when we found out Wireless Phlebotomy would come as a free enhancement with 5.62, we immediately got on board to upgrade to the newer release. We were very excited to have the opportunity to be an early adopter."

As a wireless facility already using MEDITECH's Laboratory software, St. Joseph's was the perfect candidate for Wireless Phlebotomy. Working closely with Lisa Bongiorno, supervisor, client services at MEDITECH, the facility kicked off its implementation in December 2007, and the entire hospital went LIVE in September 2008. And even though only a short time has passed since installation, the staff has already noticed a number of improvements, thanks to the new enhancement.

Handhelds Facilitate Integration, Staff Efficiency, and Teamwork
Prior to using Wireless Phlebotomy, St. Joseph's phlebotomists relied on a mix of automated and manual processes to receive orders, collect and label the specimen, and update the system. But now, St. Joseph's is using its MEDITECH software to fully automate its specimen collection processes. 

"When logged into Wireless Phlebotomy, phlebotomists can see their workloads designated by the hospital floor they are responsible for. They can easily prioritize their workload, as all orders are listed in chronological order, based on their collection time," says Lois VanAlstine, I.S. lab coordinator at St. Joseph’s. "If an order needs immediate attention, it is indicated in bold, red font, so it's easy to see and act upon."

As part of MEDITECH's Laboratory solution, Wireless Phlebotomy seamlessly integrates with MEDITECH's Order Entry (OE) product, providing phlebotomists with a dashboard interface to view all existing and new orders entered in OE on a touch screen handheld device. The dashboard displays a centralized list of patients, their locations, and requested time of draw. Also, on the handheld's dashboard, the phlebotomist can view collection instructions specific to the test and container details, such as the color of the container's cap and how much of the specimen is needed.

"All data entered and displayed on the handheld is updated in real-time," says VanAlstine. "This ensures all care teams, including Laboratory supervisors and managers, are quickly aware of new orders and can monitor activity on the hospital floor. This is a big improvement for us, since in the past, staff members were not aware of new orders unless paged or viewing the orders on a PC in MEDITECH's Laboratory application."

But Wireless Phlebotomy not only assists St. Joseph's caregivers with their own workloads, it also fosters teamwork among all staff. "If one of our phlebotomists has completed his or her designated workload, they can then use their handheld to help out with the workloads of other staff members," says VanAlstine. "If a phlebotomist works off another's worklist, the system is automatically updated to show each draw as it's completed. With this function, we have seen a noticeable decrease in wait times for completed orders, as well as an increase in staff efficiency."

Additionally, since hospital staff can enter collection times at the patient bedside rather than on a desktop when returning to the lab, the collection time data for the specimen is reflected more accurately in the system—another definite plus for patient safety. 

Positively Identifying Patients to Keep Them Safe
Although St. Joseph's has seen a number of key improvements through the Wireless Phlebotomy enhancement, perhaps the biggest benefit seen to date has been positive patient identification. With all pertinent patient information flowing from the hospital’s MEDITECH Laboratory system to Wireless Phlebotomy, phlebotomists are now able to positively verify patient identification at the time of draw through embedded checks in the system. 

"With Wireless Phlebotomy, St. Joseph's staff scans patients' wristbands into the handheld device to confirm the correct patient, correct tests, and correct labels," says Kaner. "Once the test has been confirmed and drawn, all specimen labels are printed on demand at the bedside. This essentially eliminates the possibility of labeling errors."

Having found such rapid success, it's no surprise Kaner is pleased his hospital chose to take the plunge with new MEDITECH technologies: "With all of the benefits Wireless Phlebotomy brings to our goal of providing safe and efficient patient care, I would definitely encourage more customers to take full advantage of their enhancements, and this one in particular."

For more examples of how St. Joseph's is making headlines with this groundbreaking technology, be sure to take a look at the following articles which were featured by the hospital's local newspaper and news station.

MEDITECH
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com