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.
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.
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.
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.
