McKesson Delivers Medication Safety to St. Vincent's High-Tech, High-Touch Care
1. CASE STUDY ST. VINCENT’S HOSPITAL
BIRMINGHAM, AL • HORIZON CLINICALS
M C K E S S O N D E L I V E R S M E D I C AT I O N S A F E T Y T O
H I G H -T E C H , H I G H -T O U C H C A R E AT S T. V I N C E N T ’ S
AT A G L A N C E More than 10 years ago, St. Vincent’s Hospital cross-encounter patient data – the
in Birmingham, Ala., embarked on a aggregated records form a vast, paperless
technological journey to improve clinical and clinical repository. Caregivers can access
ORGANIZATION
operational excellence by delivering vital, information such as current and past
St. Vincent’s Hospital appropriate information to clinicians and staff medications, laboratory results, radiology and
Birmingham, Ala. in a timely, intelligent manner. Now, as other pathology reports, vital signs, input/output
– Beds: 338 healthcare organizations scramble to address data, transcribed documents, and patient
– Medical staff: 700 patient safety, reduce medication errors and demographics.
– Inpatient visits per year: 20,000 improve outcomes, St. Vincent’s is already
realizing the value of blending “high-tech, To maximize the value of the repository,
– Outpatient visit per year: 148,000
high-touch” into healthcare that works, St. Vincent’s added other McKesson
– “Flagship Digital Hospital” healthcare that is safe, and healthcare that clinical solutions, including many from
for parent health system, leaves no one behind. the Horizon ClinicalsTM suite of integrated
Ascension Healthcare solutions. Physicians and other clinicians
Challenges can now analyze integrated data from
SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT
any location on the 1 million-square-foot,
– Horizon Clinicals Birmingham’s healthcare market is highly six-building hospital campus using wireless
competitive, with 21 hospitals, numerous clinics tablets, PDAs, and computers at nurse
CRITICAL ISSUES
and diagnostic centers — in fact, more than stations and in patient rooms. The
– Access to patient information 9 percent of the local workforce is employed in information can also be viewed from a
– Medication safety the healthcare field. To fundamentally affect physician’s home or office using McKesson’s
– Clinical excellence the medication and care delivery process in the secure portal technology.
– Attracting clinicians region, St. Vincent’s sought to:
RESULTS Speed access to real-time and historical “The cure for better healthcare is access to
patient information by placing information information,” says Timothy Stettheimer,
– 1,500 PCs deployed across
at clinicians fingertips anytime, anywhere Ph.D., St. Vincent’s vice president and chief
1 million-square-foot campus information officer. “By making information
Proactively monitor and notify clinicians
– 90 percent clinical information available to caregivers anytime, anywhere,
of critical changes in a patient’s condition
system usage among medical staff we’re giving them the tools to help ensure
Deploy pharmacy and bedside bar-code patient safety and quality outcomes.”
– Wireless and Web-based access
technology to help prevent medication
to patient information errors St. Vincent’s looked to McKesson for
– 10 percent decrease in average
Provide physicians with electronic ordering leading-edge technology systems for every
patient length of stay and clinical decision support tools step in the care delivery process, especially
– 25 new physicians added in 2003 for improving medication safety. The
Answers organization recognized that it needed the
processes, technology and infrastructure to
St. Vincent’s journey began in 1991 with the “close the loop” on medication errors by
plan for a completely digital information preventing them at every stage: prescribing,
environment. In 1993, the hospital brought live transcribing, dispensing, administering and
its electronic medical record. And in 1996, with monitoring.
the implementation of McKesson’s clinical
data repository, the foundation was set for To provide clinically intelligent tools for
future technology initiatives. With every pharmacists to capture scripts, fulfill orders
patient procedure, test and order compiled and validate the accuracy of the medication
into an evolving patient record – which use process, St. Vincent’s deployed
now includes more than five years of