BayCare Health System in the Tampa Bay region and PeaceHealth healthcare system, headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., have selected real-time electronic surveillance and expert clinical decision support systems provided by TheraDoc, Inc., a clinical informatics company headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT. TheraDoc’s interoperable, patented Expert System Platform(R) (ESP) is a standards-based, scalable solution that provides hospitals with real-time surveillance, management, prevention and reporting of patient safety problems such as hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and adverse drug events (ADE).
BayCare’s nine-hospital system has licensed TheraDoc’s ESP and a suite of Knowledge Modules that includes the Infection Control Assistant(R), Antibiotic Assistant(R) and ADE Assistant(R). With a long-standing focus on reducing infections throughout its healthcare system, BayCare sought a standardized process for HAI surveillance, infection control, antimicrobial stewardship, adverse drug event prevention and medication safety. TheraDoc’s real-time surveillance and reporting capabilities, infection identification, and ability to integrate other hospital data without significant customization were evaluated by BayCare as their preferred solution to enhancing the quality and efficiency of care.
According to Dr. Denise Remus, Ph.D., RN, and Chief Quality Officer for BayCare Health System, “TheraDoc technology brings many benefits and efficiencies to enhancing infection control monitoring and reporting, providing logical alerts, and reducing paperwork – all of which will help us improve patient care. The technology’s user interface was easy to maneuver and understand, and we saw real value and many resources in their solutions.”
“As the largest non-profit healthcare system in the Tampa Bay area,” added Remus, “BayCare sees TheraDoc technology as another tool and resource to improve the quality of care we provide to our community.”
PeaceHealth’s six hospitals in the Northwest will also utilize TheraDoc’s ESP and its complete suite of Knowledge Modules: Infection Control Assistant, Antibiotic Assistant, ADE Assistant and Clinical Alerts Assistant(R), with immediate implementation slated for July 2008. In 2003, the health system first implemented TheraDoc’s ESP, Antibiotic Assistant, ADE Assistant and Clinical Alerts Assistant to enhance antimicrobial stewardship and patient care at two of its six hospitals. The system-wide implementation of the Infection Control Assistant will allow PeaceHealth to take advantage of TheraDoc’s automated, comprehensive, work-flow centric infection surveillance and reporting technologies, improving surveillance efficiency and productivity, as well as reducing the paperwork of infection control practitioners.
“TheraDoc’s real-time infection surveillance software is the logical next step toward empowering infection prevention and control,” said Jette Hogenmiller PhD, ARNP, CDE, and System Quality Improvement Manger for Infection Prevention at PeaceHealth. “Its efficiencies in data surveillance, workflow enhancement, ease of use and, most importantly, real-time reporting capabilities, will enable us to stay ahead of the curve with infection prevention as well as support our commitment to excellence in patient care.”
TheraDoc president and CEO, Stan Pestotnik said, “We are delighted to work with both PeaceHealth and BayCare Health Systems in advancing their patient safety and quality initiatives through our Clinical Intelligence(TM) system. TheraDoc has a non-negotiable adherence to healthcare industry standards and best practice solutions that improve patient safety and provide measureable results and improved financial outcomes.”
Pestotnik added that the ability of TheraDoc technology to identify and prevent infections and support clinical decision making is of particular importance given new regulations imposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) starting October 1, 2008. Under these new regulations, hospitals will no longer be reimbursed for costs related to preventable conditions, including HAIs and some medical errors.
Founded in 1999, TheraDoc technology has been licensed by more than 200 hospitals in 30 states, plus the District of Columbia. Among these are Johns Hopkins, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Mayo Clinic-Florida, University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), Chicago Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Emory Healthcare in Atlanta and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center. Hospitals using TheraDoc technology range from community hospitals with under 100 beds to integrated delivery networks (IDNs) with more than 3,700 beds, academic and VA medical centers, as well as children’s and oncology specialty hospitals.
About TheraDoc, Inc.
TheraDoc is a clinical informatics company dedicated to improving the quality, efficiency and safety of patient care through enhanced clinical decision making. It provides innovative, best-in-class solutions that improve clinical and financial outcomes at a range of provider and payer organizations, including some of the most-respected healthcare institutions in the country. With clinical transparency, TheraDoc’s technologies seamlessly place mission-critical knowledge at the clinician’s fingertips, helping them to confidently manage multiple processes of care across multiple conditions and diseases. The company’s strict adherence to medical informatics standards enables connectivity and interoperability with any hospital’s disparate health information systems.
Founded in 1999, TheraDoc designs, develops, and supports a suite of clinical decision support technologies, all of which utilize a proprietary inference engine that enables its real-time capabilities. TheraDoc’s founders and core medical informatics team are internationally recognized for their pioneering work in medical expert systems. Their experience in clinical decision support design and development spans two decades. On the Net: www.theradoc.com.
About BayCare Health System
BayCare is a family of health care providers consisting of the nine leading not-for-profit hospitals in the Tampa Bay region. With 17,000 employees and other health care services, BayCare is the largest, community-based health system in the region. BayCare’s nine hospitals are: Mease Countryside, Mease Dunedin, Morton Plant, Morton Plant North Bay, St. Anthony’s, St. Joseph’s, St. Joseph’s Children’s, St. Joseph’s Women’s and South Florida Baptist. On the web: www.baycare.org.
About PeaceHealth
PeaceHealth is a Bellevue, WA-based not-for-profit healthcare system with hospitals and medical centers in Alaska, Washington and Oregon that serve more than 57,000 patients annually. Sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, PeaceHealth has provided exceptional medicine and compassionate care to Northwest communities for more than a century. PeaceHealth annually receives national recognition for innovations in patient-centered care, patient safety and healthcare technology. PeaceHealth is frequently named as one of the region’s best employers. For more information, visit www.peacehealth.org.
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