I.T., Safe Practices in the ED Lead to Leapfrog Recognition for Valley Hospital  
(12/19/2007)

Exceptional achievements in delivering safe patient care have earned Valley Hospital (Ridgewood, NJ) recent praise by The Leapfrog Group. The hospital was specifically recognized for demonstrating several Leapfrog Safe Practices, including communication among health care workers, preventing medication errors, and preventing infections.

The primary focus of Valley Health's patient safety strategy has been in the Emergency Department (ED), which has seen a dramatic rise in patient volumes over the past few years. By adopting processes and technology to support a series of patient safety efforts within the ED's busy environment, patients are cared for efficiently and all documentation is properly managed and communicated to providers. Likewise, this high quality of care stemming from the ED extends throughout all subsequent points of the care process.

To help meet the challenge of consistently providing safe, quality care throughout the continuum, the folks at Valley have been relying on MEDITECH's Advanced Clinical System. "MEDITECH provides a single integrated system which enables complete communication of the patient's record to our 800 medical staff throughout the hospital. This has helped us to raise the level of patient safety at Valley Hospital, most notably in our ED, where most care begins," states Michael Mutter, Director of Patient Safety at Valley. "In the ED, so many different hands are providing care, and the MEDITECH system really brings it all together for us. It has helped us improve the clarity of our records and documentation, as well as the accuracy and timeliness of care provided by each hospital discipline."

Patient Safety Starts with Sharing Real-time Information
With every new patient coming into the hospital through the ED, care providers must be able to gather the correct information and prioritize patient care in a quick and effective manner. "Every piece of information gathered on each patient is critical to how care will be administered," according to Peter Schwartz, CIO at Valley Hospital. "As patients make their way from the nursing station to meeting with the physician, it is imperative that the most up-to-date information follows them all the way through. Having MEDITECH's Patient Tracker in place enables our clinical staff to view a real-time record of test results, and all other pertinent information relating to the patient's care."

Mutter adds that in a fast paced environment, such as the ED, the communication taking place among staff members must be especially quick and precise. "When facing a patient in critical condition, we cannot have any breaks in communication which could result in errors in care delivery," says Mutter. "The MEDITECH software helps us communicate with each other effectively and quickly, by bringing together all the key clinical information to our fingertips when we need it."

Technology Helps Prevent Harmful Medication Errors and Infections
In many cases, patients admitted through the ED need immediate administration of critical medications, and therefore communication lines between the physician and pharmacy must also be clear and efficient. Eric Carey, Director of Information Systems, explains that through the utilization of I.T., a number of safeguards have been developed to verify that care providers order and administer the correct medications and doses.

"In the ED, our physicians use Provider Order Management to place 100% of their orders. They are able to review which medications the patient is currently taking, and use that information to avoid ordering any medications which could cause adverse allergic reactions," says Carey. "They are then able to use barcoding paired with MEDITECH's Bedside Verification and eMAR solutions to double check that the medication they are about to administer is correct." And while the hospital has no formal tracking process in place, Carey notes the ED physicians have cited numerous times the system displayed medication interaction warnings at the time of medication administration, and thereby preventing errors from occurring.

Furthermore, as hospital-bourne illnesses such as staph infections continue to concern care providers, Valley Hospital has implemented a number of preventative measures to avoid these harmful conditions. "Preventing infections, especially post-operative infections, also requires the communication among several departments," says Mutter. "Even before the patient's procedure is finished, a care provider can use the MEDITECH system to communicate with the pharmacy, ensuring the correct dose of antibiotics is ordered and waiting on a cart to be administered." He adds that by design, the Pharmacy software is helping to prevent infections, due to the standards in the dictionaries, and the fact that the system is reliable overall.

Commitment to Delivering Highest Quality of Care Continues at Valley Hospital
With the hospital's proven commitment to delivering the highest quality of care, it is no surprise that Valley has been getting an abundance of industry-wide attention. In addition to the Leapfrog recognition, Valley Hospital has also been recognized by J.D. Power and Associates, for providing an excellent patient experience overall as well as for providing an outstanding Emergency Department experience. Additionally, Valley Hospital achieved Magnet Status for its excellence in nursing.

"We are proud to say that everyone at Valley Hospital has had a hand in our success to deliver safe, quality care throughout the community," concludes Schwartz. "MEDITECH has especially played a large role in our patient safety initiatives. Our integrated MEDITECH solution ensures our clinicians have complete communication of the patient's record so that the correct care is administered. We look forward to our growing partnership with MEDITECH, as we continue to strive to deliver the highest quality of care to our community."

 

About Valley Hospital
Based in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Valley Hospital is a 451-bed fully accredited, acute care, not-for-profit hospital serving more than 440,000 people in 32 towns in Bergen County and adjoining communities. Valley has earned the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission. Based on admissions, Valley is the second busiest hospital in the state of New Jersey. The hospital’s mission is to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient health care through the efforts of its 800 physicians, 3,000 employees, and 3,700 volunteers.

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