Healthcare IT News - January 2009 - (Page 9) www.HealthcareITNews.com January 2009 n Healthcare IT News NEWSBRIEFS ClINICal SuRvEIllaNCE BooStS CaRE, CoSt SavINgS A clinical surveillance system is helping Baptist Health, a six-hospital system based in Little Rock, Ark., to increase clinical interventions and realize savings of more than $1 million. Baptist Health has been using surveillance technology from New York-based Thomson Reuters called Clinical Xpert CareFocus. “Data we collected for the 220-bed North Little Rock campus show that CareFocus prompts approximately half of the pharmacy clinical interventions that occur in this facility,” said Kevin Robertson, pharmacy clinical coordinator for Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock. Hospitals go ‘on screen’ for info By BerNIe MoNegaIN, Editor – A recent internal survey conducted by George Washington University Hospital shows employee satisfaction with hospital communication is up by 33 percent, thanks in part to new ways of communicating. Those new methods are based on Netpresenter software and include a mix of interactive PC screensavers, digital signage and emergency alerts. The technology makes it possible for the hospital to inform and motivate staff, update visitors and patients and warn everyone of emergencies with a single system. Messages are now targeted to the audience or monitor location. The latest hospital and WASHINGTON George Washington University Hospital employees say they are more in tune with what they need to know now that information is easily accessible. healthcare news is broadcast on all 1,200 personal computer workstations as an interac- tive screensaver and on large monitors in the staff elevator bays. Targeted messages are also published on big screens in the visitor elevator bays, main lobby and physician lounges. “We were looking for a solution that everyone in the hospital could access and that required no end-user training,” said Gretchen Tegethoff, chief information officer and director of information technology at George Washington University Hospital. “Messages also needed to be easy to post. Finally, it had to reduce clutter by replacing posters and paper flyers.” Tegethoff said the technology uses the oNsCreeN see page 10 St. vINCENt CENtERS plaN dIgItal INFRaStRuCtuRE St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York has revamped its IT infrastructure and digitalized 85 percent of its clinical processes. The St. Vincent system recently underwent a financial and operational restructuring that provided the organization with an opportunity to re-engineer its IT infrastructure. The first step was adopting a virtualization strategy for its clinical processes. It tapped VMware, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., for the technology. Researcher says she is collaborating with several hospitals on how design might affect patient outlook, care. By Molly MerrIll, Associate Editor New tech could change hospital design louISIaNa hoSpItal to automatE Blood BaNk West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital, serving Louisiana’s West Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, is deploying a transfusion management system to manage its blood bank and reduce lab errors. The hospital will be using technology from El Dorado Hills, Calif.-based Wyndgate Technologies, a division of Global Med Technologies, Inc. Wyndgate’s SafeTraceTx transfusion service management system was developed in collaboration with The Institute for Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh and other transfusion medicine experts. SAN DIEGO – Neuroscientist Eve Edelstein, senior vice president of research and design at HMC Architects of Ontario, Calif., and a visiting scholar in the biological sciences at University of California-San Diego, is using neuroscience and architecture to explore the effects of hospital design on patients, visitors and staff. Edelstein teamed up with Jurgen Schulze, project scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and Klaus Gramann, project scientist at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, to conduct studies on wayfinding – or navigating – using the StarCave, a 360-degree, 15-foot panel, 3-D immersive environment virtual-reality system that studies the human Eve Edelstein brain’s response to architectural cues. Edelstein says this work has provided her with a new methodology to explore what type of influence architecture may have on the healthcare setting. “In particular neuroscience can support the endeavor by how brain function can be served by the design of the environment,” says Edelstein. The StarCave is located at Calit2 at UCSD and was developed by Eduardo Macagno, founding dean of the UCSD Division of desIgN see page 10 puRChaSINg gRoup INkS dEal FoR poRtaBlE ultRaSouNd The HealthTrust Purchasing Group, LP, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based group purchasing organization, has signed an agreement to obtain portable ultrasound systems for its members. HealthTrust supports nearly 1,400 acute care facilities as well as ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices and alternate care sites. HealthTrust has contracted with Mountain View, Calif.based ZONARE Medical System for its z.one ultrasound platform. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: HoSPItaLS 0109 Jurgen Schulze tests the StarCave, a 360-degree, 15-panel, 3-D immersive environment virtual-reality system used to study the human brain’s response to architectural cues. active management of security risk? 86% 370 respondents, 261 unique organizations, representing 700 hospitals. Data collected Nov. 20, 2007-Jan. 20, 2008. Beth Israel Deaconess tightens security BerNIe MoNegaIN, Editor BOSTON 12% Yes No 2% Don’t know l e l Connect: GraPHS 0109 SOuRCE: 19TH ANNuAL HIMSS LEADERSHIP SuRVEY, SPONSORED BY CISCO – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston is tightening the security of medical data with technology to protect the hospital’s servers and applications. The hospital deployed Third Brigade Deep Security for increased protection. The technology safeguards the personal and medical data resulting from nearly three quarters of a mil- lion patient visits annually. “We believe in defense-indepth. It is simply good practice,” said Mark Olson, manager of IT security at BIDMC. “We have network firewalls and IPS, but I am always looking to do more to protect our patient data, so protection on the host server is important to me.” BIDMC is using the host-based firewall module of Third Brigade Deep Security to create zones of trust within its data centers. The intrusion detection and prevention capabilities monitor network traffic at the host servers to protect BIDMC’s diverse IT environment from attacks on vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications, including legacy Web applications. n More at HealthcareITNews.com e lConnect: SecurIty 0109 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hospital-and-idns-news-briefs-4 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/beth-israel-deaconess-tightens-server-security
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