2009 QUEST Award Winners
Integration Achievement
Financial Improvement
PatientCare Delivery Improvement
Integration Achievement
Hunterdon Medical Center (Flemington, NJ)
Opportunity existed to both increase outpatient laboratory revenue and electronically link Affinity to the NextGen Electronic Medical Record and Practice Management System. Used InterSystems' Ensemble to integrate Affinity Order Management and external laboratory system to send results to NextGen without having to purchase a reference laboratory system. Realizing over $100,000 per month in new revenue for the laboratory and we now have the ability for our laboratory to compete against commercial laboratories. We anticipate even higher revenues as we have more practices to implement.
Back to Top
Financial Improvement
Northeast Georgia Health System (Gainesville, GA)
Utilizing a TEAM approach with a centralized system-wide view of staffing, Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) implemented Acuity-based budgeting and staffing modality in the inpatient nursing units. Through the use of the QuadraMed AcuityPlus system, NGHS realized significant cost savings and ROI during the first two years of implementation. The cost savings were achieved through enhancement of direct productivity and reduction of labor expenses of overtime, contract labor and open shift incentives. The nursing division has developed evidence-based staffing processes which allow decisions to be made to better match nurse assignments and skill level to the patient's needs. NGHS also was able to increase RN skill mix using AcuityPlus National Benchmarking Database comparative data to identify target departments for change. This transition was accomplished without negatively impacting bottom line salary expenses overall.
Back to Top
Care Delivery Improvement
West Park Health Care Centre (Toronto, ON)
Appropriate allergy identification is a major patient safety concern. When West Park launched an Electronic Patient Record (EPR), it was noted that allergens and their reactions must be entered in the system prior to medication orders. System audits revealed only 55% of patients had allergies documented within the EPR prior to medications being ordered. A working group was created to address this issue and within 6 months through monitoring, reinforcement, education, system changes, and reporting we were able improve compliance to 95%. Based on clinician feedback and the working group recommendation, we have successfully implemented the highest level of alert. Meaning medications cannot be ordered until the allergies have been entered in the EPR. System changes allowed this initiative to successfully reach its goal of 100%; however, it was the education component with multiple interventions that demonstrated the importance of setting the stage for a greater acceptance of system enhancements.
Back to Top