Client Case Studies

Respiratory Care:
Sutter Health SUNY Upstate Medical University Sarasota Memorial Health Care System Methodist Hospital Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Texas Children's Hospital St. Rita's Medical Center

Rehabilitative Medicine:
Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation Johns Hopkins Bayview Lancaster General Banner Good Samaritan Texas Children's Hospital North Colorado Medical Center University of Utah Hospital

MediServe Client Impact Case Study - Respiratory Care

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System

Sarasota Memorial is an 828-bed county hospital and is the second largest public hospital in Florida. It is a non-teaching hospital specializing in cardiovascular, neuroscience, cancer, and peri-natal care. Sarasota was recognized as Money Magazine's top hospital in 2003 and recognized as one of America's Best Hospitals in 2005 by U.S. News and World Report. In October 2005, Sarasota received Solucient's 100 Top Cardiac Hospitals award.

Prior to the MediLinks implementation, Sarasota used Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager™ to place orders and complete charting using a flowsheet. Documentation, including flowsheet design, protocol patient evaluation collection, and the plan of care were all managed by the Eclipsys system.

But the Respiratory department's management and administrative functions were completed on paper by collecting hard copies of all orders & time standards and generating reports manually. This was inefficient and Sarasota needed to tie the entire Respiratory workflow into one automated system. MediLinks was the solution selected to help solve this problem.

Sarasota went live with MediLinks for Respiratory Care in July 2005. MediLinks has automated all management operations and integrated charting, documentation, and orders. All patient orders and schedules automatically drive the therapist worklist. Charges are now automated with MediLinks and no longer manually entered into the system.

The goals of choosing an effective Respiratory information system include achieving regulatory compliance and documentation integration to ensure information is available to all caregivers. MediLinks is useful in meeting regulatory compliance. The Joint Commission's (JCAHO) Provision of Care (P.C.) function requires Assessment of Care, (MediLinks Protocol and Patient Assessment templates), Planning of Care (MediLinks, Patient Problem List required once a shift, utilizes the same criteria on the Problem List used by nursing), and Provision of Care (MediLinks branching logic documentation). The Coordination of Care cycle of Assessment, Planning, and Provision of Care is easily maintained through the MediLinks system. JCAHO requires patient education (P.C. 6.0) which is documented in MediLinks at the initiation of any new therapy.

Previously, pharmacy could not review Respiratory orders, which is required by the JCAHO chapter of Medication Management. Now MediLinks allows an order to be reviewed and sent to the McKesson Pharmacy System. Once respiratory receives a medication order, the therapist places an interface order to the pharmacy. Pharmacy maintains review and control over medication administration maintaining a consistent level of care. All missed treatments (medication variances required in the Management Medication chapter of JCAHO) are accurate and documented electronically.

Several paper-based protocols programs are now automated and have improved the consistency of the protocol process overall. For example, all workload estimates are now automated, precise, and more efficient as a result of a protocol program.

Overall, there has been an increase in efficiency, without reducing the number of therapists (not the ultimate goal). Automating daily management and administrative functions has changed the way Sarasota runs its Respiratory department today.

After completing only a four month ROI study, Sarasota experienced the following results:

Financial Impact

• $163,000 cost savings

Clinical Impact

• 6% more productive, per unit of work