Iatric Systems Accelero Connect Integrates Medical Devices with the EHR

Halifax Regional Medical Center reports streamlined workflows and enhanced patient care after working with Iatric Systems, Inc., a comprehensive healthcare IT integration company, to integrate Welch Allyn and Nihon Kohden medical devices with its electronic health record (EHR) in various hospital areas. With Iatric Systems Accelero Connect in place, patient vital signs are automatically captured and integrated into the medical chart, reducing the chance for transcription errors and further improving patient safety.

Halifax Regional, located in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, uses Accelero Connect in several departments, including the ICU and med/surge areas, as well as the progressive care, joint care, and psych units.

Prior to the integration, nurses across the 204-bed hospital would manually capture and enter vital signs into the EHR, a tedious process that opened the door for documentation errors. This was particularly true in high-acuity areas, such as the ICU, where the data had to be captured in 15-minute intervals. Nurse workflows have been revamped to remove this double documentation.

The increased data-sharing enables Halifax Regional clinicians to have real-time access to pertinent patient data, so they can make clinical decisions anytime, anywhere.

“We are committed to finding ways to better leverage technology so we can continuously enhance care provided to the Roanoke Valley community, and connecting medical devices with the EHR is a major step in that direction. Our nurses are ecstatic about the new data-sharing capabilities and increased efficiencies,” said Robert Gordon, director of information systems for Halifax Regional Medical Center. “The support of Iatric Systems has been phenomenal throughout this process. My advice for other facilities would be to get a dedicated partner like Iatric Systems who can manage the project start to finish and bring together the other vendors to make everything work more seamlessly.”

The integration experience of Iatric Systems and its partnership with Welch Allyn enabled the integration to be completed in such a way that nurses can verify vital signs at the bedside, instead of having to verify the results at the device and again in the EHR. This further streamlines processes and helps ensure the correct data is filtered into the record.