DOTHAN, AL – A recent IDC Health Insights study, sponsored by Wolters Kluwer Health, found that deployment of electronic order sets for CPOE has led to some $1.7 million in increased clinical and administrative staff productivity and operating profits for Dothan, Ala.-based Southeast Alabama Medical Center (SAMC).
The study examined return-on-investment from the 400-bed hospital’s use of ProVation Order Sets from Wolters Kluwer. SAMC implemented the technology with an eye toward compiling and standardizing its 200 existing paper-based order sets for migration to CPOE.
IDC found that the medical center realized payback on its initial investment in just 15.4 months. It achieved average annual savings of: $1.3 million in increased physician productivity (due in part to a 70 percent reduction in order clarifications that returned 148 hours per year to physicians); $373,760 in increased unit secretary productivity due to an 80 percent reduction in order entry time; and $76,000 from a reduction in unauthorized overstays caused by delays in order entry.
Randy Perry, vice president, business value strategy at IDC, told Healthcare IT News that the results should be relatively easily replicable. "I would think that any other facility that would undertake this deployment, if they took the same process – involving all stakeholders, setting realistic roll-out dates, and having the thing be managed by one or two people all the way through the process – could reap the same level of benefit," he said.
