Thomson Reuters Installs Clinical Xpert at Catholic Healthcare West for HIS Downtime Solution

Thomson Reuters announced today that Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), the eighth largest hospital system in the United States, has implemented Clinical Xpert ™ as its downtime solution when access to the hospital information system (HIS) and electronic patient data is temporarily unavailable.

CHW has implemented Clinical Xpert — a Thomson Reuters healthcare solution formerly called MercuryMD MData — in five of its facilities and plans to implement it across additional facilities in 2009.

Clinical Xpert integrates into virtually any IT infrastructure. It captures vital clinical data from the HIS — including admission-discharge-and-transfer information, medications, radiology reports, lab results, vital signs, and demographics — and stores them in a staging database managed by the hospital. During planned and unplanned HIS downtime, clinicians can access the staging database to retrieve the most recent clinical data for their patients — so they can continue providing informed care without interrupting their workflow.

“Clinical Xpert is a key component of Catholic Healthcare West’s overall clinical information system continuity plan,” said Scott Whyte, senior director of physician and ambulatory IT strategy at CHW. Though downtimes are rare, during one recent period CHW clinicians were able to access Clinical Xpert for their patient information, allowing them to continue on their rounds without interruptions.

In addition, the Clinical Xpert Navigator enables CHW clinicians to get real-time access to clinical data via their mobile devices such as Palm, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry ® smartphones.

“CHW continually looks for ways to better serve our physicians and caregivers,” said Whyte. “This mobile data solution provides the clinical data our physicians need during the course of their daily activities to deliver excellent care to our patients.”

The Clinical Xpert suite of solutions includes applications for mobile patient data, clinical surveillance, charge capture and medication reconciliation.

“Catholic Healthcare West’s use of Clinical Xpert during HIS downtime is a testament to their innovative efforts to maintain business continuity and ensure their physicians have access to updated clinical data at any time, enabling them to provide improved quality of care,” said Thomas Hegelund, executive vice president of the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters. “They have demonstrated how Clinical Xpert can be an integral part of any hospital’s IT infrastructure.”