SUBSCRIBE
to the
PSQH e-Newsletter

Mobile, AL, February 21, 2008 — Patients treated during the 7,500 surgeries performed annually at Boston-based Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center will experience the latest in patient safety technology with the recent acquisition of solutions from DocuSys, Inc., a leading anesthesia information management system (AIMS) and medication management system provider.

St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, with 343-beds, has 13 operating rooms and is part of the six-hospital Caritas Christi Health Care system in New England. As part of its goal to enhance patient safety procedures during the perioperative (surgical) process, St. Elizabeth's sought technological solutions that would support these efforts. Specifically, the collection of detailed patient information before admission and automating the documentation of the anesthesia case with medication decision support were among their top priorities.

DocuSys is providing St. Elizabeth's with a Web-based, patient-driven health survey application for collecting a patient's health history prior to surgery; a module for capturing professional fees and documenting comorbid conditions (existing illnesses); and its AIMS application, which produces an electronic medical record of the anesthetic case as well as providing decision support for medication delivery and quality measure compliance.

"Patient safety is a focus of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, and fully understanding each patient's unique conditions such as existing illnesses and allergies earlier in the care process is critical to achieving positive outcomes," said Dr. Gary Robelen, chairman, Department of Anesthesiology at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. "Integrating advanced technology like DocuSys' into our clinical practices will help usİenhance safety forİour patients while enabling us to thoroughly document each surgery case."

According to DocuSys President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Watson, "Being selected by this important New England medical center to provide technology that complements its patient safety program is an honor. With DocuSys as its partner, St. Elizabeth's is enhancing its ability to provide its patients with a safe, streamlined surgical environment."

With such a comprehensive perioperative patient safety solution, St. Elizabeth's anesthesia practitioners can begin developing medical plans for patients well in advance of surgery, supporting the Medical Center's patient safety efforts earlier in the surgical process. In addition, improved fiscal performance of the operating room will be realized through workflow efficiencies as well as the capture of comorbid conditions, which can lead to a higher level of reimbursement by CMS and other payers. Extensive reporting capabilities in the AIMS application will then enable St. Elizabeth's to document compliance with national quality measures.