Scripps Health Selects GE’s Integrated Clinical, Financial and Administrative Information Technology Solution to Improve Productivity Across Continuum of Patient Care
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and a leading provider of information technology solutions, announced today that Scripps Health, a not-for-profit community-based health care delivery network in San Diego, has elected to upgrade its electronic medical record system with GE’s Centricity® Enterprise Solution, an integrated clinical, financial and administrative solution. Scripps selected the Web-based Centricity® Enterprise Solution for its capacity to help further streamline its workflow and improve productivity across the continuum of patient care. This upgrade will provide an improved foundation for Scripps to share patient health information throughout its five acute care hospital campuses and 13 clinics.
Through a suite of enhanced information management capabilities, GE’s Centricity Enterprise will help improve the way Scripps’ team of physicians, clinicians and other health care professionals access critical clinical information, while reducing administrative workload and automating the charging process.
“By maximizing the use and benefits of clinical and financial information technology in order to better serve patients, Scripps provides a real-world example of how health care providers and information technology vendors can work together to improve the quality of patient care,” said Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions.
The system upgrade will offer several benefits to Scripps, such as improvement of patient lists to include role-based lists and improvement of clinical documentation that further supports patient care. Allergy checking and medication reconciliation are two enhancements that will directly impact the quality and safety of patient care.
“We are proud to continue our partnership with GE toward our goal of having a common platform that will provide a consolidated view of relevant patient information,” said Drexel DeFord, Scripps Health chief information officer. “The Centricity Enterprise product will enhance our clinicians’ ability to make decisions, resulting in even better service and outcomes.”
Upgrading to Centricity Enterprise will also allow clinicians to screen medication orders for potential errors, support the future use point of care bar coding for safer medication administration, and electronically document patient encounters. By moving to the most current version of Centricity Enterprise, Scripps will also be able to contribute to future development of the product, while positioning itself to receive future upgrades and enhancements more efficiently.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare’s broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new “early health” model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
About Scripps Health
Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a $1.7 billion non-profit community health system, treating nearly a half-million patients annually through the dedication of 2,600 affiliated physicians and 11,000 employees spread across five acute care hospital campuses, home health care services, and an ambulatory care network of clinics, physician offices and outpatient centers. Recognized as a world leader in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, Scripps is in the forefront of disease and injury prevention, clinical research and medical innovation and technology. In 2006, Scripps spent $110.5 million to upgrade our facilities and technology across the region while providing significant charity care to the community — more than $195 million in uncompensated care in 2006.
Scripps facilities include: Scripps Green Hospital, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Scripps Mercy Hospital, Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, 11 Scripps Clinic locations and two Scripps Mercy Medical Group locations, and Scripps Home Health Care Services. More information can be found at www.scripps.org.