April 28, 2011
Award-winning collaboration: Cerner, WellSpan Health and Hospira
On
April 28, 2011, Cerner was honored along with WellSpan
Health and Hospira with
the Collaboration Award as part of the 2011 Way-Paver Awards at the 6th Annual unSUMMIT
Conference for Bedside Bar Coding. This award is significant; it’s the
first-ever Way-Paver Award to recognize collaborative efforts and results
between a healthcare IT company, a hospital and a device manufacturer.
In
collaboration with Hospira smart infusion pumps, Cerner launched the infusion
management system at WellSpan Health’s York Hospital Medical-Surgical ICU. This
is the first I.V. clinical integration system in the world to accomplish true
bidirectional communication, closing the loop on the infusion medication management
process. Learn more in the video below.
We
sat down with Eva Karp, Vice President and General Manager of Cerner’s EMR Operations,
to learn more about the collaboration, the challenges and the successes of the
partnership.
How
has the collaboration between partners strengthened the relationships with each
other?
We
all have a shared vision of safer patient care. This
initiative bought three parties together to reach the objective of patient
safety by integrating technologies with a focus on safety, process and
outcomes. The partnership between Hospira, WellSpan Health’s leadership
and clinicians, and Cerner’s vision and strategies related to device
integration provided an opportunity to innovate at the point of service.
Having practicing clinicians involved from the conception of the strategy
to production use was a key factor to the success of this solution. It
required the collective vision and partnership of all three organizations to
truly reach the goal of safer management of infusions.
This
is first of its kind innovation – what was the experience like for you?
It
was inspiring and gratifying. I have been in the field of healthcare
informatics for 23 years and will not mention how long I have been in
healthcare. My clinical background is in critical
care where I felt you made a difference one patient at a time. I went in to
this field because I thought I could impact safer patient care and improve the
experience of nurses more broadly in the informatics field. This
solution really connected with making that difference. I am grateful for
the incredible opportunity to work on solutions like this.
What
were some of the challenges faced and how did you overcome them?
Working
across three organizations to solve technology problems is challenging when you
all have competing priorities. The strength of the partnerships was felt
in aligning the goals, objectives and focus. Strong communication and
working closely with Kelly Marley, Cerner’s client results executive at
WellSpan, were important factors in keeping all three organizations up to date
on progress and working together to solve potential roadblocks.
How
do you think this project will improve clinician workflow and lead the way for
future innovation?
I think we made what seems impossible, possible! We have
already seen other device manufacturers adjust their plans for device
integration due to the success of this solution and the increasing demand from
clinicians that all medical devices be integrated into their workflows. We have
only begun to discover what we can do to improve workflow and communication of
information that is available from different devices at the bedside.
How
has do you think this has advanced patient care/safety?
Nurses
no longer have to be the technology integrator. The ability to program
the pump via an electronic order placed by the physician not only decreases the
number of clicks the nurse would have to make, but it also prevents errors from
incorrectly programming the pump. The nurse will no longer have to key the
titrations and patient's physiologic data into the medical record because it
now flows electronically thru cerner's iBUS. The nurses will now have
more time to care for the patient and analyze the
effect of the titrations on the patient’s physiological status and due to the
graphical display if the data is the effect of the protocols more quickly.
There’s
also improved communication and workflow. The unit view and pharmacy view
provide a perspective of the infusion status as it relates to the physician
orders without having to be physically in the room. This decreases the number
of unnecessary steps to find this information and the pharmacist will have the
same view. This improves the timely delivery of medications to the patient
and prevents unnecessary waste by preparing another infusion when the infusion
has actually been discontinued.