Nortel Speeds Patient Discharge For M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando

Industry-First Healthcare Solution Promotes Happier Patients, Healthier Revenues
ORLANDO, Fla. – There’s good news for hospital patients and medical professionals frustrated with the time and cost of discharging patients, thanks to an industry-first Patient Discharge Solution developed by Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] in cooperation with physicians at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando.**

When Wayne Jenkins, MD, medical director for this affiliate of the world-renowned University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center,** was confronted with sagging discharge times, he and Orlando surgeon Marc Demers brainstormed a concept to streamline the process, then turned to Nortel to help create the solution.

Now M. D. Anderson - Orlando, a part of Orlando Regional Healthcare,** is the first hospital in the world to implement Nortel’s Patient Discharge Solution.

Healthcare providers like M. D. Anderson - Orlando are saving critical time and enhancing productivity to better serve their patients in an increasingly demanding environment with innovative healthcare solutions built on unified communications technology and network managed services from Nortel.

These Healthcare Solutions are on display in Orlando, Fla. this week at HIMSS08, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (Nortel booth #6281).

Nortel’s Patient Discharge Solution saves time and money by employing computer-integrated telephony and interactive voice response (IVR) technology to automate the entire discharge process from physician consent to prescriptions, housekeeping and the wheelchair ride to the front door.

“As we look at where we invest in information technologies across the health system, we’re always looking for opportunities that address concerns about costs, quality of care, patient safety and workflow efficiency,” said Rick Schooler, vice president and chief information officer, Orlando Regional Healthcare. “This particular technology enables prompt consensus among physicians regarding a patient’s discharge while relieving nurses of phone tag, improving hospital bed utilization and allowing patients to return home sooner.”

“This is an important example of how Nortel empowers clinical transformations to help healthcare providers improve efficiency and patient outcomes,” said Dave Murashige, vice president and general manager, Multimedia Applications, Nortel. “Our automated discharge solution clearly shows how we can help hospitals capitalize on an emerging hyperconnected environment to create collaborative communities benefiting patients and healthcare professionals alike.”

With Nortel’s Patient Discharge Solution, nurses at M. D. Anderson - Orlando select a patient’s name and order a ’request for discharge’ within Orlando Regional’s electronic medical record system. The IVR technology does the rest. It handles all outbound calling automatically, eliminating the 10-to-12 calls per discharge nurses previously had to make. This includes calls to multiple physicians generally involved with each patient, the pharmacy, physical therapy, housekeeping, transportation and other resources.

Even calls to the family notifying them that the patient is ready to go home are handled automatically. Patients are happier because they get home earlier and without the frustration of waiting hours to be discharged. Nurses spend less time discharging patients and more time treating patients, which reduces costs and maximizes resource availability for additional revenue generation.

During a recent pilot at M. D. Anderson - Orlando, discharge times improved by four hours. Faster discharges can mean more patients treated and discharged. Nortel estimates that a 1,700-bed hospital system can increase annual revenues by as much as US$11 million with a conservative increase of 6,000 discharges per year.

Healthcare providers around the world rely on clinical-grade networking solutions from Nortel to connect clinicians and processes as well as maintain and distribute electronic medical records and images. Nortel’s Healthcare Solutions portfolio includes consulting, application, implementation, support and managed services.
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