Toronto-based North York General Hospital (NYGH), a community academic hospital, has been named a 2016 HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award recipient for its diverse use of health IT to improve patient outcomes.
Since 1994, the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence has recognized outstanding achievement of organizations that have utilized health information technology to substantially improve patient outcomes. More specifically, the Davies Awards program promotes electronic health record (EHR)-enabled improvement in patient outcomes through sharing of case studies and lessons learned across a wide range of efforts, including implementation strategies, workflow design, best practice development and adherence, as well as engagement that has improved care outcomes for patients.
According to the HIMSS announcement, NYGH—inclusive of 419 acute care inpatient beds with 5,000+ staff, physicians and volunteers—submitted four case studies demonstrating how they leveraged health IT to improve patient outcomes, including:
- NYGH implemented closed-loop medication administration (CLMA.) By leveraging information technology at every step in the process, CLMA eliminated manual entry of medications and fires an alert if a medication about to be administered does not match the drug, dose, route, timing and/or intended patient indicated in the active orders on the electronic chart. From 2010-2015, NYGH has prevented more than 11,000 medication errors using CLMA.
- Through the use of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support in the form of order sets and alerts, NYGH cut expected VTE occurrences in half.
- Through safety and quality initiatives driven through CPOE, clinical decision support and medication reconciliation, NYGH significantly lowered the probability of in-hospital death from medication errors, pneumonia and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“The challenge of implementing change of this scope and scale was immense, but possible, thanks to great teamwork and a constant focus on the quality and safety benefits we are celebrating today,” Tim Rutledge, M.D., president and CEO, North York General Hospital, said in a statement. “Receiving the Davies Award is a reflection of the commitment to excellence of our people, the staff and physicians who made it happen.”
Jonathan French, Senior Director of Quality and Patient Safety and Davies Program Director with HIMSS, added, ““Despite the challenges many healthcare organizations face with funding, competing priorities and a lack of medication barcoding standards in Canada, NYGH aligned people, process improvement, and health information technology to generate sustainable improvements in patient outcomes. North York General is a testament to the importance of a collaborative, quality improvement focused approach that is truly the hallmark of the Davies Award.”
North York General Hospital will be recognized at the 2017 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, February 19-23 in Orlando, Fla.
