Solution streamlines workflow and efficiency at world-renowned hospital
Las Vegas, NV – February 22, 2012 – Awarepoint Corporation, the leading provider of real-time location system (RTLS) solutions for healthcare, announced today that NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has successfully deployed its real-time location system at its Columbia University Medical Center campus to enhance workflow, quality of care, and patient satisfaction in perioperative areas of the internationally renowned hospital. Surgeons and staff at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, which operates one of the country’s busiest perioperative centers, are using the system.
“The successful go-live of awareSurgical at NewYork Presbyterian/Columbia marks a critical milestone as we strive to advance quality, efficiency, and care coordination to the next level while maximizing use of our electronic health records (EHR) and other mission-critical information systems,” said Aurelia Boyer, CIO at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.”The solution uses real-time information about the location of equipment 24 hours a day as well as a very sophisticated rules engine, user interface, and set of interfaces to other clinical systems to dramatically improve our communication and efficiency.”
Previously, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, which integrated the Awarepoint awareSurgical application with its operating room (OR) scheduling and EHR software, found it challenging to coordinate patient care and communicate with each other because the surgery department physically was spread out across two different buildings and two separate floors. Another logistical issue was that each building had a separate perioperative area spanning the pre-operative, operative,and post-operative phases. This physical layout and large staff made patient flow, which is a major challenge for hospitals nationwide, even more complex.
When the hospital added eight more ORs, it needed a system that would organize and coordinate activities from registration to post-op so all parties would know what everyone else was doing. “Access to real-time location information has substantially improved daily communication and efficiency at our extremely busy and large OR,” said John C. Evanko, M.D., M.B.A., OR director at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. “Within two months following implementation, Awarepoint’s technology enabled us to reduce perioperative telephone calls involving patients by more than 40 percent. RTLS helped streamline patient handoffs because it automatically notifies the next unit patients will be moved to when surgeries are completed. The system also notifies housekeeping that ORs need to be prepared for the next patient, optimizing utilization of the OR.”
The awareSurgical application NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia uses is part of Awarepoint’s aware360°Suite of RTLS-enabled solutions which translates real-time data into actionable intelligence. The application monitors location of patients, personnel, and assets. It runs that information and data from hospitals’ scheduling and EHR systems through a series of predefined rules based on the facility’s standard surgical workflow, and then sends a series of notifications to caregivers. In addition, a series of reports allow the hospital to identify bottlenecks in their procedures, providing them the information they need to make changes and improvements in their processes.
“The successful, large scale implementation of RTLS at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia further showcases our ability to collaborate closely with hospital IT departments, address their needs and install solutions in complex environments,” said Jay Deady, president and chief executive officer of Awarepoint. “As the market shifts to accountable care, hospitals nationwide need to be more efficient in order to remain competitive. By using and integrating RTLS with its EHR, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia is setting a high standard for advanced use of technology to meet this goal. We are excited to work with NewYork-Presbyterian to realize their vision of providing the highest-quality care and improving operating efficiency.”
About Awarepoint
Awarepoint provides the only complete RTLS solution optimizing healthcare workflow for improving asset management and availability, optimal patient flow, and increasing care team efficiency.
The company’s aware360°Suite provides unmatched RTLS technology, best-in-class software, and fully managed services for the healthcare enterprise. By improving asset, patient, and personnel visibility across the enterprise, the aware360°Suite allows administrators and care providers to advance the Quality, Efficiency, Experience, and Economics of care. For more information, visit www.awarepoint.com/.
About NewYork-Presbyterian
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, based in New York City, is the nation’s largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital, with 2,409 beds. The Hospital has nearly 2 million inpatient and outpatient visits in a year, including 12,797 deliveries and 195,294 visits to its emergency departments. NewYork-Presbyterian’s 6,144 affiliated physicians and 19,376 staff provide state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division. One of the most comprehensive health care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education and community service. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the nation’s leading medical colleges: Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. For more information, visit www.nyp.org.
