Parrish Medical Center Sees 30 Percent Improvement In Mortality Using Real-Time Clinical Surveillance Solution From Thomson Reuters

Ann Arbor, MI — Parrish Medical Center, a 210-bed community hospital in Titusville, Fla., has reduced mortality by 30.8 percent using the Clinical XpertTM CareFocus solution from Thomson Reuters. That equates to more than 60 lives saved annually.

The hospital also reduced “code blue” conditions — patients requiring resuscitation after a cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest — outside of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) by 76.5 percent.

The Rapid Response Team at Parrish, known as its Critical Assessment Team (CAT), utilized CareFocus as part of its Six Sigma quality improvement project to reduce hospital mortality and code blue conditions outside the ICU.

“The fewer people you have coding on the floors the better you can take care of them in the ICU,” said Frank Corcoran, RN, BSN, director of ICU / RT / Hemodialysis / Infection Control at Parrish Medical Center. “Our current reduction in mortality, trended out over a one-year period, will equate to about sixty-three extra lives saved.”

The CAT used the real-time surveillance capability of CareFocus to develop clinical profiles that monitor select patient data such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and other critical values. Patients who meet a profile’s criteria — indicating they are at risk — are included on a list accessible to ICU staff, charge nurses, clinical coordinators, administrative supervisors and nurse managers, directors and vice presidents.

Four times each day — twice during the day and twice over night — a team of CAT personnel and nurses meet to review the status of patients on the list. The team then determines if the patients can be stabilized or if they should be sent to the ICU for further treatment.

“CareFocus identifies the at-risk patients for us. And because the information is easily accessible by the team, we’re now able to review the patient’s information beforehand and come to these meetings better prepared to make treatment recommendations,” said Corcoran.

“Our clinicians began using CareFocus in late August 2009. In just a short period of time it’s helped them make a significant improvement in clinical quality and patient safety,” said Bill Moore, chief information officer at Parrish Medical Center. “We’re looking forward to expanding its use to other clinicians throughout the hospital to achieve equally impressive improvements.”

CareFocus enables hospital clinicians to build profiles that identify high-risk inpatients based on an ongoing, automated review of their medications, laboratory and radiology results, vital signs, diagnoses, active orders, demographics, and other clinical data. Patients who meet a profile’s criteria are segmented into lists that are delivered to a clinician’s smartphone and a Web portal. By identifying these high-risk patients early, hospitals can significantly improve clinical outcomes while reducing mortality, complications, and length of stay.

About Parrish Medical Center
Parrish Medical Center is a 210-bed, not-for-profit public medical center serving Florida’s Space Coast for 50 years. Located at 951 N. Washington Avenue in Titusville, Parrish Medical Center is a nationally recognized industry leader having earned a number of prestigious recognitions, including America’s #1 Healing Hospital for three consecutive years; JD Power & Associates Distinguished Hospital Award for Outstanding Patient Experiences, Health Grades® Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ and Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence Award™, Modern Healthcare Magazine’s Top 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare and Spirit of Excellence Awards; Hospital of Choice Award; National Spirit of Women Premier Hospital; and nine Joint Commission disease-specific Gold Seal® certifications (more than all but two other hospital in Florida). For more information, visit parrishmed.com or call 321-268-6110.

Thomson Reuters
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