Designing The Care-Planning Process To Guide Evidence-Based Practice

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery;  Conferences
Article Date: 04 Apr 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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CentraState and Pinnacle health systems will demonstrate and discuss how to leverage information technology to improve nursing practice as part of the Siemens Healthcare (http://www.siemens.com/healthcare) experience at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2009 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago.

Siemens' Plan of Care (POC) technology, on display in Siemens' booth (#2036), generates information to promote best-practice and goal-oriented care among healthcare organizations' interdisciplinary teams. The POC technology facilitates a collaborative care-planning approach by allowing nurses to quickly and easily implement a patient-specific collective care plan that is derived from best-evidence content. Subsequently, the team's efforts to continually update their plan of care becomes a natural part of the workflow, creating efficiencies for all responsible clinical team members who are evaluating a patient's progress throughout the course of care.

By utilizing Siemens' Plan of Care tools, healthcare organizations have the opportunity and flexibility to implement coded terminologies and evidence-based content that can be modified to match the natural dialogue of clinicians, while also adhering to industry terminology standards. Plan of Care, combined with Siemens' premiere Health Information System (HIS) Soarian, enables organizations to conduct cross-patient analysis of interventions and outcomes, thereby helping clinicians and executives make adjustments to treatment protocols and thus supporting continuous improvements in quality, process, and more informed decisions at the point of care.

Two Siemens' Soarian Clinicals customers were part of the Plan of Care beta program launched in 2008.

The 271-bed CentraState Health System in Freehold, NJ, which in December 2005 became only the 187th hospital out of more than 5,700 throughout the U.S. to be awarded the prestigious Magnet designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) of the American Nurses Association, mapped out a clear vision and a unified effort to ensure clinician and interdisciplinary care team buy-in was achieved early in the process. CentraState's roadmap included five critical capabilities they deemed essential in determining a successful implementation:

-- Provide a highly patient-centered customized plan of care that can be a current relevant reference throughout the patient stay

-- Develop valid, actionable plans of care with as few keystrokes and clicks as possible

-- Offer important data to support continuing patient care upon discharge

-- Enable shared data and observations in near real-time

-- Promote staff confidence in the technology that presents analytical data which helps clinicians enable adjustments in treatment protocol

And, to ensure further adoption, CentraState embarked on a multi-disciplinary approach that incorporated input and expertise from nurses, clinicians, social workers, and physicians. Its 30-member Plan of Care team represented every nursing unit and discipline in the facility and served as the joint decision-makers for executing its interdisciplinary plan. To date, the results have been encouraging. In a relatively short time frame, CentraState has already documented improvements in its nursing productivity and admission/assessment times.

"CentraState has already developed 142 care plans with Soarian by using standardized nursing terminology such as NANDA/NIC/NOC, "said Linda Geisler, RN, MNEd, NEA-BC Vice President, Patient Care Services. "Since the first week that the POC initiative was implemented, CentraState has maintained close to 100 percent compliance with ensuring that every patient admitted to the hospital has a plan of care assigned to them within the first 24 hours of their admission. This will help us improve the quality of our care delivery and will lead to increased positive outcomes for our patients."

Pinnacle Health System, a 500-bed health system in Harrisburg, PA, that became the 10th hospital in Pennsylvania to become Magnet-certified in 2006, partnered with Siemens and Zynx Health to integrate evidence-based content into their Soarian Plans of Care. When Plans of Care went live at Pinnacle in June 2008, it was implemented in over 20 different workflow channels within the organization and helped hospital staff and clinicians identify and overcome specific workflow-related challenges based on the data findings.

"As a nurse executive I look for innovative tools and strategies that will support my nurses in their day to day work, making them more efficient and able to deliver safe and quality patient care, "said Sherri Mater, RN, BSN, MS, Chief Nursing Officer. "Siemens has given us these tools. Information technology is a key tool in healthcare today and provides the support necessary to ensure that things are not missed or fall through the cracks. It is essential to our nurses' work."

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare is the first integrated healthcare company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy, and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consulting and support services. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions across the entire continuum of care - from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis, therapy and care. Additionally, Siemens Healthcare is the global market leader in innovative hearing instruments. The company employs around 49,000 people worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2008 (Sept. 30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of euro 11.2 billion, orders of euro 11.8 billion, and Sector profit of euro 1.2 billion. Further information can be found by visiting http://www.siemens.com/healthcare.

Siemens Healthcare
http://www.siemens.com/healthcare

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