KANSAS CITY, Mo. and PITTSBURGH, Sept. 1, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, which has used Cerner(r) (Nasdaq:CERN) solutions for 10 years, was recently recognized by KLAS as the leader in its use of healthcare information technology among pediatric hospitals in the United States. Children's Hospital uses Cerner solutions to enable a paperless workflow in every patient care setting in the hospital as well as the health information management department.
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"Throughout its journey of automation, the leadership at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh had a true vision to use healthcare IT to improve patient safety and clinical outcomes," said Trace Devanny, Cerner president. "Cerner is proud to have worked with Children's Hospital to make this vision a reality. We commend the leadership, IT teams, clinicians, and staff at Children's Hospital for the dedication that makes them the leader in use of healthcare information technology among pediatric hospitals in the United States."
Children's Hospital began using Cerner solutions in 1999 when it implemented solutions to automate processes in its pharmacy department. Since then, the hospital has implemented an additional 19 solutions and upgraded to the Cerner Millennium(r) healthcare computing platform.
"This recognition is a real tribute to the hard work and ingenuity of the physicians and employees of Children's Hospital as well as our strategic partnership with Cerner," said Christopher Gessner, Children's Hospital president. "The automation of clinical information across the continuum of care is a highly complex and challenging undertaking that can only be accomplished through outstanding teamwork. Cerner has truly shared our vision of using technology as an enabler for our clinicians to provide better, safer care for our patients. We look forward to our continued work together as we analyze the data available to us and work continuously to improve the care of our patients and workflow of our staff."
Children's Hospital has realized numerous benefits from using Cerner solutions including:
* Reductions in medication errors that cause harm; * Elimination of transcription errors; * Improvements in documentation and compliance; and * Improvements in turnaround times for radiology and lab reports.
Children's Hospital implemented computerized physician order entry (CPOE) in 2002 to improve patient safety, and has seen a reduction in medication safety events since that time. The rate of medication safety events that reached the patient has decreased since CPOE from 0.091/1,000 doses to 0.036/1,000 doses, a 60 percent reduction. Improvements have been seen in each major step of the medication process: ordering, dispensing, and administration.
Children's Hospital also achieved another major milestone this year with the opening of its new facility in May. It is one of the most advanced digital hospitals in the country, and among the first to have a fully integrated EHR. More than 3,600 clinical and non-clinical staff use Cerner solutions in acute-care settings at Children's Hospital.
KLAS' determination of Children's Hospital's leadership position was based upon a number of factors including the percentage of possible physicians doing CPOE, the percentage of possible orders submitted via CPOE (inpatient and ambulatory), the percentage of physicians entering notes and documenting using an electronic health record (inpatient and ambulatory), a fully shared record between inpatient and ambulatory, the percentage of hospital beds where barcode technology is used for medication administration and the percentage of nurses charting and documenting electronically (inpatient and ambulatory). KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors.
KLAS Confidential Information. (c) 2009 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. For more information about KLAS, visit www.KLASresearch.com.
About Cerner
Cerner is transforming healthcare by eliminating error, variance and waste for healthcare providers and consumers around the world. Cerner(r) solutions optimize processes for healthcare organizations ranging in size from single-doctor practices, to health systems, to entire countries, for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and for the healthcare commerce system. These solutions are licensed by more than 8,000 facilities around the world, including approximately 2,100 hospitals; 3,300 physician practices covering more than 30,000 physicians; 500 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 600 home-health facilities; and 1,500 retail pharmacies. The following are trademarks of Cerner: Cerner, Cerner's logo and Cerner Millennium. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, please visit our Web site at www.cerner.com.
About Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Renowned for its outstanding clinical services, research programs and medical education, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has helped establish the standards of excellence in pediatric care. From Ambulatory Care to Transplantation and Cardiac Care, talented and committed pediatric experts care for infants, children and adolescents who make more than 500,000 visits to Children's and its many neighborhood locations each year. Children's also has been named consistently to several elite lists of pediatric health care facilities, including ranking 10th among children's hospitals (FY 2008) in funding provided by the National Institutes of Health, and is named one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. For more information about Children's Hospital's electronic health record, called eRecord, please visit www.chp.edu.