InterSystems Corporation and Forerun, Inc. today announced that Landmark Medical Center, a full-service healthcare network, has implemented Forerun, Inc.'s EDDashboard. Utilizing InterSystems Ensemble® as its integration engine, the EDDashboard went live at year-end 2007 and is already delivering major improvements in patient management and care delivery. The announcement was made at the HIMSS 2008 annual conference and exhibition.
This system provides a global view of what's happening in the Emergency Department (ED) in real-time," said Dr. Victor Pinkes, Landmark Medical's Chairman of Emergency Medicine. "In addition to tracking the true time that a patient spends in the ED prior to hospital admittance or discharge after treatment, the EDDashboard enables rapid identification of life-threatening conditions that must be addressed immediately. The result is optimal response and care delivery as well as improved patient management," Pinkes noted.
The leading database provider in healthcare, InterSystems develops and markets innovative database and integration software. Its product line includes the InterSystems CACHÉ® high-performance object database, InterSystems HealthShare™ platform for regional and national electronic health records, and InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration platform. Ensemble has been ranked number one for integration engines for the last two years by KLAS, a leader in healthcare technology research.
Forerun, an InterSystems application partner, develops and markets integrated clinical support systems, tools, and services that enable providers to deliver high quality outcomes and the highest patient satisfaction at the most efficient cost.
One Screen Delivers Full Perspective
Approximately 70 percent of Landmark Medical's hospital admissions come through the ED, which treats about 47,000 patients annually, according to Dr. Pinkes. "We use a mid-level triage model where the patient is first registered, then triaged by mid-level clinicians and then treated by a physician," he explained. "It's extremely important to know how many patients are waiting for treatment and exactly where they stand in the treatment process."
Using Ensemble, information from the hospital's registration, laboratory, pharmacy and radiology systems flows to the EDDashboard. "With the Ensemble-based EDDashboard, we have a global awareness of what's happening with each patient," Pinkes continued. "Everything that is clinically relevant—tests ordered and completed, prescriptions ordered, and clinician notes, for example—is visible on a single screen for each patient. This builds confidence among clinicians that they aren't missing critical information while simultaneously improving the ED workflow."
Next Step: Measure the Benefits
"It's too soon after implementation to do a comparative study of workflow improvements since the EDDashboard went up," said Colleen Ryan, Director of IT at Landmark Medical. "However, we can already see a positive impact on communication among caregivers and faster patient discharge or patient admittance, depending on what is appropriate. And, from a technical viewpoint," she continued, "Ensemble has made it easy to rapidly integrate the hospital systems with the EDDashboard to enable a smooth flow of critical patient information at all times."
"In addition, the Ensemble-enabled EDDashboard is helping to identify and eliminate bottlenecks by providing the objective data needed to verify what I may already intuitively know to be true," said Pinkes. "The result is faster delivery of quality care with significant benefits for both providers and patients that we plan to quantify with comparative data by the end of 1Q08."
ED Economics
In addition to supporting quality care delivery, the EDDashboard also has a positive effect on each provider's bottom line, according to Ken Wolfe, Forerun CEO. "Just 15 years ago, an estimated 2,000 people were treated per ED bed," he said. "Today, hospital executives plan on serving just 1,300 people per ED bed annually due to the amount of work needed to process each patient. Technology such as the EDDashboard makes it possible to increase patient throughput while simultaneously providing top-tier care."
"Based on input from ED physicians and administrators, Forerun's EDDashboard combines innovative design with emphasis on information presented in a form that clinicians find very helpful in delivering quality care," said Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems Vice President of Strategic Planning. "In contrast to older style departmental software, for which integration was often an afterthought, the EDDashboard was designed from the start to operate as a fully connected application. Its use of Ensemble’s extensive connectivity capabilities enables ED workflow improvements needed to support a hospital network's economic model in the increasingly competitive healthcare sector. We are excited about working with Forerun as they deliver this comprehensive, highly anticipated software to EDs nationwide."
About InterSystems
InterSystems Corporation is a global software product company with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in 22 countries. InterSystems provides innovative products that enable fast development, deployment, and integration of enterprise-class applications. InterSystems CACHÉ® is a high performance object database that makes applications faster and more scalable. InterSystems Ensemble® is a rapid integration platform that enriches applications with new functionality, and makes them connectable. InterSystems HealthShare™ is a platform that leverages existing healthcare applications to rapidly create regional or national electronic health records.
InterSystems is the world’s #1 vendor of database and integration technologies for healthcare applications. InterSystems products are used by thousands of hospitals and labs, including all 18 hospitals on the Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals as rated by U.S. News and World Report. For more information, visit InterSystems.com.
About Forerun
Headquartered in Waltham, Mass., Forerun is single-mindedly committed to improving the clinical quality and economics of Emergency Departments. We are leveraging the insights and experience of leading practitioners of Emergency Medicine to dramatically improve the quality, speed, and effectiveness of clinical care in Emergency Departments worldwide.
Forerun owns the exclusive commercial rights to the EDDashboard, a nationally recognized, clinically focused ED information system. The EDDashboard has more than six years of proven operational success at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
The EDDashboard improves medical care and the operational efficiency of the Emergency Department. Data points from many sources are consolidated at a single display, providing a more comprehensive and integrated view of the patient's condition. The EDDashboard's real-time patient information capabilities, clinical decision support, and enhanced communication result in reduced patient waiting times, length of stay, medical errors, and duplicate test ordering while delivering improved patient satisfaction and continuity of care.