Nurses
Drive Clinical Excellence Discussion throughout 2008 Nurse
Informatics Workshop
(5/8/2008)
For nurses, involved in so many different
aspects of patient care, driving clinical excellence is a
multi-faceted process. The challenges of accessing time-sensitive
information, using it to facilitate error-free care, and
sharing it with other caregivers across the continuum, are at
the heart of their work. MEDITECH's I.T. tools are designed
to help them take on the leadership roles necessary to
accomplish all of these goals, by giving them new ways to
mobilize their data, and make it work for their unique
organizations.
Over 230 attendees (and 27 organizations via WebEx remote
teleconferencing) discussed these issues at MEDITECH's recent
Nurse Informatics Workshop, where they heard from a variety
of industry and customer speakers on how to use their skills
to accomplish long-range health care goals. Keynote speaker
Sandy Summers, RN, of The Center for Nursing Advocacy
detailed the importance of nurse activism in changing common
misconceptions of nursing in the popular media. By speaking
up and becoming more involved in their communities, nurses
can use their power to influence funding for research and
education projects, while encouraging young people to
consider nursing as a viable career path.
Summers emphasized how today's real-life nurses are
proficient in varied technologies, using their knowledge to
advance the cause of patient safety. Other workshop speakers
confirmed this, including Cate O'Connor-Devlin, RN, who
provided a perfect example of nurses' importance in reducing
medical errors. She shared how nurses at Greater Baltimore
Medical Center have been using MEDITECH's Bedside
Verification and the electronic Medication Administration
Record (eMAR) to improve the medication administration
process. Likewise, several customer speakers described how
they are now using I.T. in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), to
assist with quickly monitoring vital signs and viewing key
data. These sessions clearly illustrated how using the latest
I.T. technologies can help nurses take their care to a whole
new level of safety and efficiency.
Simply having solid technologies wasn't enough to make
MEDITECH's customers successful, as many of the event's
speakers demonstrated. Open communication is also essential
to ensure nurses use their tools to facilitate truly
coordinated care. Three different customer sites spoke about
the importance of training nurses on new technologies, and
how they each found a method of instruction which worked for
their unique needs. In addition, Patricia Hahn, RN, of Little
Company of Mary Hospital, described her hospital's strategies
for improving hand-offs between different provider shifts,
and how their I.T. system aids these transitions. Finally,
attendees heard from Anita Karcz, CIO of MEDITECH's strategic
ally, The Institute for Health Metrics, who revealed some of
the ways quality reporting can help nurses to track and
prevent hospital-acquired infections. Sharing the right
information at the right time, in easy-to-understand formats,
hospitals can leverage the benefits of their systems to
attain better outcomes for patients and more efficient work
environments for nurses.
Attendees also had the opportunity to hear from MEDITECH's
executive leadership on the company's strategic direction, as
well as our Development team, which has been making great
strides in streamlining and enhancing functionalities for
Client/Server and MAGIC. 6.0 was also a hot topic, as
MEDITECH staff gave nurses more information about this new
step forward for the company's product line. Track sessions
afforded the chance for extended discussion on our efforts,
as well as valuable networking and Q&A time. Nurses were
able to earn up to 12 contact hours for their participation
this year—the most possible in the history of the event!
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com