Reflecting its dedication to the best possible patient care and safety, Hanover Hospital of Hanover, Pennsylvania, uses latric Systems Accelero Connect medical device connectivity to integrate GE vital sign monitors with its EHR. Vital signs now flow automatically into the patient record in real time, improving staff productivity, preventing errors, and giving clinicians timely access to data needed for effective decision making. Accelero Connect is live in three hospital departments, each with different GE monitor models, unique integration challenges, and staff workflows.
Phase 1: The Critical Care Unit—Accelero Connect Displaces the Incumbent The first department to go live was Critical Care, where Accelero Connect replaced an existing product from another vendor. “We chose Accelero Connect because it provides better mapping and filtering than the previous system,” observes Richard Clark, lT Project Manager at Hanover Hospital. “Accelero Connect can also integrate other types of devices besides patient monitors – smart pumps, for example.”
Phase 2: The New Heart and Vascular Outpatient Unit (HVOU) The next rollout was to a new hospital unit – the Heart and Vascular Outpatient Unit (HVOU) – which provides a catheterization lab, diagnostic testing, and cardiac rehabilitation services. The nurses who were hired to staff the new unit came from specialized environments in other hospitals where vital sign monitors were already integrated with hospital systems. These new nurses expected Hanover Hospital to provide a similar experience, and with Accelero Connect in place, the hospital was able to meet that expectation.
Phase 3: The Emergency Department The biggest transformation was in the ED, where Accelero Connect is saving time and freeing up nurses to focus on patient care. The need for integration hit home during flu season, when the ED was inundated with patients, and staff were pushed to the limit. “At one point, the Vice President of Nursing was in scrubs helping out on the ED floor because there were so many patients,” Richard notes. “Accelero Connect allowed us to increase the productivity of our nursing staff. The Vice President of Nursing thanked me personally, and the Clinical Educator was all smiles.”
Before Accelero Connect was implemented, nurses had to enter vital signs manually into the patient chart, sometimes waiting hours until there was a lull and they were able to catch up. The new medical device connectivity solution eliminates this lag time and is also very beneficial for patient safety in the fast-paced environment of the ED, where it can be easy to enter the wrong value. Now the readings flow into the system immediately and automatically so patients can get appropriate, timely treatment. “Accelero Connect streamlined what had been a completely manual process,” Richard adds. “The nurses in the ED are ecstatic because they don’t have to manually key patient data into the computer. Whenever we can get nurses in the ED to smile, that’s a really good thing.”
A Smooth Deployment and the Support They Need
Richard reports that the Accelero Connect rollout went very smoothly in each of the units where it was deployed. “Our original plan was to get Accelero Connect out there and stabilize it. As it turned out, no stabilization was needed.” Making it possible was latric Systems technical competence and great service, as well as a quality product. “l’ve been in this industry for 30 years,” Richard adds. “l’ve been a vendor, so l know what it’s like on both sides of the fence. latric Systems provided the resources we needed when we needed them, and they absolutely knew what they were doing. That’s why l agreed to tell our story – because it was such a good experience.”