Real-time EHR Surveillance Intelligence in PremierConnect™ Integrates Patient Data to Coordinate Care, Reduce Waste

Premier’s big data platform adds SafetyAdvisor^® app, linking infection prevention with medication management and providers with evidence-based best practices

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Premier healthcare alliance has redefined patient surveillance by integrating its new safety app on the largest technology platform and networking community in healthcare.

“SafetyAdvisor isn’t just a data mining software or a collection of microbial and drug data. It actually thinks. It helps us analyze the data and get to the point where we can make decisions and develop interventions”

A first in the industry, the PremierConnect platform links providers across the nation with electronic health record (EHR) patient data, evidence-based best practices and each other – all in real-time. Its new app SafetyAdvisor automates patient surveillance alerting infection preventionists, clinical pharmacists, physicians and nurses of patients at risk for harm to prevent potential healthcare-associated infection (HAI) outbreaks and other avoidable adverse events, which have been reported to contribute to roughly $20 billion each year.

“SafetyAdvisor isn’t just a data mining software or a collection of microbial and drug data. It actually thinks. It helps us analyze the data and get to the point where we can make decisions and develop interventions,” said Rebecca Bartles, MPH, CIC, director, infection prevention, Mountain States Health Alliance.

With the new patient safety app, providers view a real-time action feed of alerts to quickly make informed decisions that prevent patients from acquiring infections and follow the best medication therapy possible. For instance, SafetyAdvisor immediately notifies users of a patient post-hip surgery who is not receiving the sufficient doses of anticoagulant needed to prevent deep vein thrombosis or blood clotting.

SafetyAdvisor aggregates siloed EHR data such as medication orders/administrations, lab orders/results, and imaging/surgery results into a single dashboard using industry standard terms to cut out time spent building rules and reports. The information is simultaneously scrubbed of personal data and fused into PremierConnect, adding to a library of evidence-based best practices for any user to analyze, compare and benchmark care delivery with outcomes.

Social networking communities within PremierConnect enhance the value of SafetyAdvisor by allowing providers to communicate with each other, address gaps in performance and share knowledge. For example, an infection preventionist looking to reduce HAIs can identify hospitals across the U.S. with low HAI rates and collaborate with them to seek advice on better care remedies. In fact, approximately 350 hospitals collaborating in this way have saved 72,000 lives and $7.5 billion over four years as part of Premier’s integrated quality and patient safety initiative to improve overall experience, cost of care, harm, readmissions, evidence-based care and mortality.

SafetyAdvisor is role-based to coordinate workflow from desk to bedside and everywhere in between, connecting care across the health system; for example:

• A healthcare executive sees more satisfied patients and better margins under today’s risk-based reimbursement programs.
• An infection preventionist can focus on prevention rather than detection with automatic alerts for potential HAIs, streamlined Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services/National Healthcare Safety Network regulatory reporting mandates and predictive evidence-based orders.
• A clinical pharmacist can measure changes in outcomes based on shifts in therapeutic decisions, link productivity to results, and implement real-time rules to reinforce revised approaches to care.
• A pharmacy director can benchmark against like peer groups and current medication usage patterns to standardize drug utilization and see if the price declines as providers drive toward better practices.
• A physician or clinician can access rounding lists on their phones or tablets at any time.
• An environmental services team can identify which rooms need specific cleaning protocols to prevent disease transmission; bed managers receive alerts to appropriately place patients in isolation on admission; and dieticians can evaluate the clinical lab data to determine the most optimal nutrition plan for patients.

Premier Senior Vice President of healthcare informatics Keith J. Figlioli said, “With advancing technology, evolving healthcare demands and regulatory pressures comes the opportunity to re-imagine how care is delivered. A real-time surveillance platform that predictively identifies variances can help eliminate waste and unnecessary costs, and improve outcomes – all by quickly getting accurate information to the right people at the right time.”

Combining trended outcomes measurement, actionable patient surveillance, and advisory services, the 2,700 hospitals and 90,000 non-acute sites that are members of Premier collaborate within their organizations and across the alliance.

Premier members benchmark, compare, analyze, and integrate clinical and operational data within PremierConnect, which is powered by IBM information management, business analytics, enterprise content management, social business, Rational, Tivoli and WebSphere software, and IBM Power Systems hardware. The platform houses 26 terabytes of payor, provider and supply chain data on 1 in 4 U.S. hospital discharges from 2.5 million clinical transactions daily and roughly $40 billion in annual purchases.

Premier placed third for healthcare technology innovations on the 2012 InformationWeek 500 list, making the list for the third consecutive year; and was the sole recipient of IBM’s CTO Innovation Award in 2012.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

Premier is the nation’s largest performance improvement alliance of more than 2,700 U.S. hospitals and 90,000 other sites using the power of collaboration and technology to lead the transformation to coordinated, high-quality, cost-effective care. Owned by healthcare providers, Premier operates a leading purchasing network with nearly $5 billion in annual savings. Premier also maintains clinical, financial and outcomes databases based on 1 in every 4 patient discharges. A world leader in measurably improving patient care, Premier has the largest performance improvement collaboratives in America, including one in partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. http://www.premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.