Children's Medical Center
About Children's Medical Center
Children's Medical Center is private, not-for-profit, and is one of the largest pediatric healthcare providers in the nation. As the only academic healthcare facility in North Texas dedicated exclusively to the comprehensive care of children from birth to age 18, Children's provides patient care ranging from simple eye exams to specialized treatment in areas such as heart disease, hematology-oncology and cystic fibrosis. In addition, Children's is a major pediatric kidney, liver, intestine, heart and bone marrow transplant center. As the primary pediatric teaching facility for The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, the medical staff at Children's conducts research that is instrumental in developing treatments, therapies, and greater understanding of pediatric diseases.
Business Issues
• Lack of integration between dozens of existing clinical applications
• No simple and efficient way for clinicians to access and view disparate patient information
• Significant time lag in information processing
Benefits Realized with Fusionfx
• Simplified, accurate view into patient’s complete medical record in a fraction of the original time
• Increased accuracy in positive patient identification
• Streamlined clinical workflow
• Immediate and wide-spread clinical adoption
• Enhanced quality of care and patient safety
The Challenge
As Children’s moved from a paper-based to a paperless environment in preparation for the eventual day of fully Electronic Medical Records, they, like many large institutions, invested in several dozen clinical applications to house critical patient data. What they soon found was that each application operated independently from the others. Clinicians were left frustrated by the tedious process of having to conduct a separate patient search within each individual application in order to get a complete view of a patient’s clinical record. In addition, because of the isolated nature of applications, there was often a three-four day time lag from the time patient data was entered into the system and when it could be accessed.
In order to decrease the amount of time clinicians spent searching for patient information, Children’s sought a solution that could integrate their clinical systems and deliver real-time, unified access to the most up-to-date, accurate patient information. One concern, however, was that many solutions were proprietary, closed systems that were not compatible with existing applications and required a significant infrastructure overhaul. Children’s needed a system that could extend the value of their existing IT investments while better serving their electronic patient databases.
The Solution
After a careful evaluation of several solutions, Children’s selected the Fusionfx solution suite from Carefx. Fusionfx’s open and scalable architecture allowed the hospital to easily, time-efficiently and cost-effectively integrate their existing systems, including Cerner PowerChart and the Eclipsys ICU (SCC) system. Additionally, utilizing the “application viewer” feature of Fusionfx, Dallas was able to extend the value of their legacy SCC application and increase user adoption by adapting and streamlining it’s user interface to align with the clinician’s workflow. Fusionfx aggregates the patient information contained in these applications and presents the information to clinicians quickly and intuitively.
In just three months, Children’s was up and running with 250 users. Today Fusionfx is running on 5,000 desktops throughout the hospital and is in use by more than 6,000 care providers.
The Bottom Line: Enhanced Patient Care
Since implementing Fusionfx, Children’s has experienced:
An increase in accurate patient identification to 100%. Leveraging context management, a key component of Fusionfx, clinicians access the correct patient record in the first application they open and then are automatically and accurately passed to the appropriate patient records in each subsequent application they open. Clinicians now feel confident that they are not only looking at the right record, but also the most up-to-date information, leading to improved clinical efficacy and patient safety.
Streamlined clinical workflow. Since Fusionfx integrates with Children’s existing applications, clinicians do not have to learn how to use new software. Fusionfx works within the clinicians existing routine and knowledgebase, providing enhanced tools and resources with minimal training.
Increased user adoption/clinician satisfaction. Clinician satisfaction has increased significantly. Having quick and easy access to relevant patient information has not only increased productivity, but has resulted in clinician’s recognizing the fact that IT listened to their concerns and clearly addressed them. Applications that weren’t intuitive have been updated; applications that didn’t align are now working in perfect unison.
Open, scalable platform that grows with the organization. Children’s has currently embarked on a portal pilot program using Fusionfx to further allow clinicians intuitive, streamlined access to patient information via a clinical portal. Fusionfx links children’s wards at several area facilities, providing continuity of care as patients move between hospitals. In addition, because Fusionfx can be deployed incrementally, Children’s can fully evaluate the implementation and modify their roll out to meet specific needs without disrupting day-to-day operations.
The result is widespread adoption among clinicians who boast about how the system greatly enhances their ability to find critical patient information, gives them back time previously spent moving between applications, and ultimately allows more direct time with their patients.
About Carefx
Carefx supports healthcare organizations in achieving their vision of advancing the quality and safety of patient care delivery through its Fusionfx solution suite. Fusionfx streamlines and simplifies clinical and business workflow and connects care providers to the information they need, where and when they need it. Fusionfx delivers crucial patient information with speed, efficiency and logic by managing care transitions and information gaps between diverse departments, systems and facilities. Carefx supports more than 400 hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) across North America and Europe.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, Carefx can be reached at (480) 833-5010 or by email at info@carefx.com. Visit www.carefx.com for more information.