Success Stories with Perioperative and Critical Care Information Systems

“The results with Anesthesia Manager have been dramatic. None of my colleagues would want to return to a paper record because we now realize the many benefits of computerized anesthesia charting…With the ability to copy portions of a petient’s previous record, a great deal of time is saved and redundancy is eliminated.”

Dr. John MacCarthy
St. Jude Medical Center
St. Jude Medical Center Goes Paperless

“We are a Level C unit (more complex ICU patients) and cannot work on this scale without the requirement of an information system with the Picis characteristics.” 

Dr. Hugo Côrte-Real
Santa Maria Hospital, Portugal
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"We wanted a tool that was easy to use, would be integrated with existing systems and give us functionality, reliability, security and flexibility…We had a previous positive experience with Picis and their OR Manager solution."

Dr. Rafael Ortega
Boston University Medical Center
The Boston University Medical Center, an example of
computerization of critical areas

Because of the extensive integration the Picis solution provides, physicians enter orders in VistA during their rounds while reviewing a patient’s course rather than having to wait until the end of rounds or having to leave rounds to enter a patient order. “I definitely believe that having all of this information at your fingertips during rounds helps physicians make patient care more efficient and more accurate.”

Eran Gellar, MD
V.A. Palo Alto Medical Center
A Victory for ICU Safety

“Prior to deploying the Picis Perioperative Dashboard, we had a 45-50 percent first case on-time start range. Already, with the new system, we’ve moved to the 80-85 percent range for first case on-time starts. This significant increase has saved our staff a great deal of time and headache, which has been a much-welcomed boost for employee morale.”

Janet Burke
Lahey Clinic Medical Center
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New CMS reimbursement rules mean ICU procedures and documentation have to be better than ever. “Medicare is not going to cover the cost of infections acquired in the hospital, so hospitals have to become more proactive in patient care. Procedures are easily documented, and we can pull a weekly infection report in CareSuite that shows when and where catheters are placed.”

Catherine Angleton, RN
University Medical Center, Tucson
Raise the Bar

This Nursing Spectrum article highlights how nurses at six different hospitals (all Picis clients) transition from paper to electronic documentation systems for pre-, intra and post-op activity, and the many advantages they see, including enhanced continuum of care, easy online viewing of surgical records and instant transfer of records.

Debra Anscombe Wood, RN
Operating in Real Time

"The efficiencies are phenomenal," says Shifflett. "For one, the number of phone calls to track down patients has dramatically reduced thanks to the plasma screen. There also are smaller screens in the waiting areas so family members can follow a patient's progress by using a special identification number. They also have better interdepartmental communication.”

Fonda Shifflett
Rockingham Memorial Hospital
The EHR: It's a Hard Road to Implementation, But Well Worth the Trip

“Within 9 months of going live, we reduced the billing days from 3-5 days to 1 day and cut average late charges by $117,000 a month. Our OR revenue has jumped 35 percent and is rising steadily. That is enough to keep us impressed with the system for a while!”

Judy Swanson
Texas Children’s Hospital
Stitching Up Surgical Costs

Inside Healthcare Computing was first to report that The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center was replacing an existing surgical information system with CareSuite OR Manager to track surgical patients throughout perioperative care and provide clinicians with online access to patient information and comprehensive reporting with one system.
M.D. Anderson Dropping SIS for Picis

“Although Picis provides benefits to patients, nurses and physicians, it is the wireless aspect of the technology that enhances each of these benefits; the OR Computers on Wheels (COWs ) themselves are the most beneficial aspect of this wireless system. These COWs make it possible for the nursing staff to actively assist physicians in each procedure because they are no longer continually working at a nearby wall.”

Maryann Fieldhouse
Harbor Hospital
Harbor Hospital Uses Wireless Computer System in OR

High-tech documentation and monitoring tracking systems help reduce errors and free nurses to devote more time to direct patient care. Read how Mayo Clinic in Phoenix is achieving benefits.
Off the Charts

Saint Barnabas Health Care System faced an urgent OR management information system rollout brought on by the sunsetting of the organization’s previous OR system. “Training took place at two hospitals and the ambulatory care centers, and Picis staff played a big role in the rollout’s success by training users morning, noon and night, whenever they were available.”

John Moustakakis
Saint Barnabas Health Care System
Software Training: A Never-Ending Story

"We've improved the accuracy of our information. Prior to installing OR Manager, we had no idea what our costs were, but now we are able to provide procedure-based charges, which are added automatically to patients. bills. The hospital typically captures $150,000 to $300,000 in charges each month that may have been missed prior to installing OR Manager. We have 10,000 supplies to monitor for the operating room, and we now know what we.re spending each year on products and procedures for more precise billing.”

Coleen Lucas
Mount Nittany Medical Center

“We’re monitoring 50 variables in complex cases,” Lubarsky says. To eliminate the risks associated with manual entry, the hospital integrated the CareSuite perioperative record with a number of patient monitoring systems. “Patient information such as pulse rate, blood pressure, respiratory volume and rate, blood oxygen level, and brain wave data—which helps determine how sedated a patient is—now automatically populate the CareSuite database.”

David Lubarsky, MD
University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital
Medical Devices Meet Electronic Records

"We have dramatically improved our overall research efforts. To date, we have used the automated high-acuity information as a clinical database in five scientific research projects. In addition, we are using the data to internally analyze different clinical settings."

Janne Aaltonen, MD
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Finland
Lessons Learned from Abroad