The HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence (HIMSS Davies) recognizes outstanding achievement of organizations that have used health information technology (HIT) to substantially improve patient outcomes and value. The award honors Dr. Nicholas E. Davies, an accomplished physician who believed computer-based patient records were necessary to improve patient care. Here, we look at three award winners that have used HIT to drive value in a clinical setting.
Children’s National wins HIMSS Davies for its collaboration with the Bear Institute
Children’s National, a 313-bed hospital in Washington, D.C., received the 2017 HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award for work with its collaborative in IT excellence, Bear Institute for Health Innovation. The Bear Institute devoted efforts to implementing technological solutions focused on improving patient care and safety.
For example, Children’s National’s pediatric intensive care unit saw a dramatic improvement in patient safety after implementing “quality boards” – digital dashboards that help educate and engage the parents and loved ones of many of the children receiving care. These boards decreased the average time from admission to treatment by 49 percent.
Children’s National also made sweeping changes to the hospital’s IT infrastructure by implementing an ambulatory electronic health record (EHR), lowering transcription costs and empowering clinicians to expedite their note-taking process through voice recognition technology.
Finally, Children’s National confronted the expensive and potentially harmful radioactive practice of pediatric computerized tomography (CT) scans, which rose 20-fold between 1995 and 2003. Staff in the hospital’s emergency department introduced a workflow that achieved a 44 percent relative reduction in CT scans by more accurately prescribing the necessity of the practice.
“I’m thrilled that the Bear Institute has had such a big impact on our own organization, and I look forward to sharing our success. There’s so much we can do.” – Dr. Kurt Newman, president and CEO at Children’s National
Learn how Children’s National plans to use informatics in the future:
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Children’s National honored with prestigious HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award
Future of Pediatric Care: Children's National's Dr. Kurt Newman
Children’s National Health System | Davies Enterprise Award
Lafayette General Health wins HIMSS Davies for showing measure improvements in patient care
Lafayette General Health (LGH) in Lafayette, Louisiana, won the HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award in 2017 for using HIT to make measurable improvements to patient care in three categories: lowering their sepsis mortality rate, improving clinical documentation and reducing accidental punctures or lacerations.
In 2014, LGH implemented the St. John Sepsis Agent, an algorithm that continuously monitors key clinical indicators and recognizes a potentially septic pattern in patients. In addition, LGH hired a sepsis response nurse to monitor and address alerts as they were triggered in the EHR. These efforts saved an average of three lives per month between March 2016 and February 2017.
Additionally, leaders at LGH prioritized the use of clinical documentation improvement throughout the hospital. Between 2013 and 2017, documentation response rates went up by 11 percent, earning the hospital net variance reimbursements of more than 600 percent.
In 2015, LGH began the process of improving its Patient Safety Indicator-15 accuracy rate to lower the total number of accidental punctures or lacerations. To do this, the organization used its EHR to generate near real-time reports that specialists reviewed. These efforts reduced its accidental puncture or laceration rates by 34 percent.
“The use of information technology is a critical strategy in enhancing our care delivery and improving outcomes for our patients and providers. The HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award demonstrates how Lafayette General Health is using the best of technology and collaborative teamwork to deliver better care and health to our patients and organization each and every day.” – Mike Dozier, vice president and chief information officer of IT at Lafayette General Health
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Lafayette General Health honored with prestigious HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award
Lafayette General Health | Davies Enterprise Award
Nicklaus Children’s Health System wins HIMSS Davies for decreasing blood transfusion error rates
Home to the largest pediatric teaching program in the southeastern U.S., Nicklaus Children's Hospital (formerly known as Miami Children’s Health System) is the only licensed specialty hospital in southern Florida that is exclusively for children.
After implementing a more thorough HIT strategy in 2016, Nicklaus Children’s improved productivity and workflow. Specifically, the hospital implemented barcoding technology that scanned the blood bank recipient document and compared this to the donor bank label on the blood product. According to Nicklaus Children’s findings, this application helped drop blood transfusion error rates to zero once it was integrated into the EHR.
In addition to enhanced processes regarding blood transfusions, Nicklaus Children’s also recorded a reduced occurrence of catheter-associated urinary tract infections. According to its award application, this was attributed to the implementation of monitoring best practice guidelines.
Finally, the health system’s digital-first strategy uniquely addressed asthma, which is the most common chronic childhood condition and the most frequent reason for hospitalization within the pediatric population. The Nicklaus Children’s team began providing asthma home management plans of care, which included the information necessary to manage the symptoms of asthma within the comfort of the patient’s home. In their Davies application, Nicklaus Children’s stated that readmission rates had dropped by 26 percent due to these more rigorous care plans.
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Miami Children’s Health System | Davies Enterprise Award
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