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GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company, and Intermountain Health Care (IHC), one of the nation's top integrated health care systems, have announced their first joint project aimed at preventing adverse drug events and increasing patient safety. GE and IHC will work together on the development of a new advanced electronic medication administration record, also known as an eMAR, which will better enable collaboration among a patient's care team—anyone who touches the patient and sees to their care.
Physicians, nurses, and engineers from GE and IHC will work side by side to create the new eMAR at a joint clinical research center to be based in West Valley, Utah. The clinical information technology will incorporate hand-held devices and bar-coding technologies, and will leverage in-depth clinical patient information to automatically validate and document prescribed medications.
"Our goal in working with IHC is to provide clinical information technology that will strengthen a care team's clinical decision support and, ultimately, enhance patient care," said Vishal Wanchoo, president and chief executive officer of GE Healthcare Information Technologies. "The new clinical eMAR we develop, which will strengthen a seamless process of physician ordering, pharmacy dispensing, and nurse bed-side administration, is at the core of safe and high-quality patient care."
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), adverse drug events result in almost 770,000 injuries and deaths annually in the United States, and cost the nation's hospitals up to $5.6 million each per year. The development of computerized monitoring systems, like eMAR, can reduce up to 95 percent of those errors, according to AHRQ.
"The rich clinical data IHC has collected over the years combined with GE's clinical IT programs will enable clinicians to capture and learn from embedded protocols, leading to a significant reduction in medical errors," said Wanchoo.
“The collaboration between GE and IHC, and the research project they are announcing, is significant and will put Utah at the forefront of efforts to enhance patient care and safety," said Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. "The medical implications of the project are vast, as are the benefits to Utah's economy and stature in the high technology and biotechnology industries."
