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Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Reduces Turnaround for Meds

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 09:00 CST

The desire to improve safety and care quality, increase efficiency and enhance patient satisfaction drove the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to computerized physician order entry (CPOE) implementation with Cerner Corp. The unified Cerner Millennium(R) architecture allows the Medical Center to connect all caregivers and systems. Cerner solutions improve the ability to share information throughout multiple care facilities and deliver decision support to the point of care, helping prevent medication errors and achieve positive outcomes.

The Medical Center has experienced success through implementing Cerner solutions such as a 40 percent reduction in the elapsed time between dictation and physician signature. In addition, the Medical Center documented 100 percent of allergies, reduced code-to-bill time by nearly 30 percent and decreased the average perceived time from order to medication cabinet access from 90 minutes before CPOE to 45 minutes after implementation.

"We experienced marked success and satisfaction with the current solutions, and value our relationship with Cerner," said Donna Reck, chief nursing officer of the Medical Center. "Cerner clearly understands every member of the care team and what is necessary to unify that care across the continuum."

The Medical Center in Hershey, Pa., counts that more than 100 of its physicians are in the Best Doctors of America database. The Medical Center partnered with Cerner to utilize solutions for electronic medical records, CPOE, emergency department, pharmacy, documentation and medical transcription. In addition, hundreds of order sets, rules and alerts support the patient safety and efficiency goals set forth by the organization.

"Penn State Hershey Medical Center is leading the way in implementing greater safety measures by automating its healthcare process," said Trace Devanny, Cerner president. "Together with Cerner, the Medical Center now has successful HIT solutions that will significantly improve care for the three million residents of central Pennsylvania."

Founded in 1963 through a gift from The Milton S. Hershey Foundation, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is one of the leading teaching and research hospitals in the country. The 479-bed Medical Center is a provider of high-level, patient-focused medical care. Annually, the Medical Center admits nearly 26,000 patients, accepts nearly 738,000 outpatient visits, receives more than 47,000 patients for emergency room visits and performs nearly 22,000 surgical procedures.

The Medical Center will exhibit CPOE, emergency department, nursing and medication administration solutions on Feb. 13 in booth 2813 at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference being held at the San Diego Convention Center, Feb. 12-16.

Cerner offers a one-of-a-kind unified architecture with unparalleled end-to-end solutions and service portfolios. Cerner is committed to forming long-term, collaborative partnerships with clients who share its mission to drive error, waste and variance from the healthcare process.

Cerner Corp. is taking the paper chart out of healthcare, eliminating error, variance and waste in the care process. With more than 1,500 clients worldwide, Cerner is the leading supplier of healthcare information technology. The following are trademarks of Cerner: Cerner, Cerner Millennium, Cerner's logo. NASDAQ: CERN. www.cerner.com.

Source: Business Wire

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