Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital Targets Closed Loop Medication Process with Eclipsys Solutions

In its ongoing pursuit to deliver the best quality of care to its patients, Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (PIH), a 444-bed acute care facility located in Whittier, CA, recently underwent a highly successful activation of Eclipsys’ Sunrise Pharmacy™ medication solution. By replacing paper processes with a centralized pharmacy information system, PIH also initiated a system-wide electronic medication record (eMAR) to support enhanced communication, speed and accuracy in dispensing patient medications. The implementation marks a critical step towards a closed loop medication process and builds upon the community hospital’s successful adoption of Eclipsys’ computerized physician order entry (CPOE) solution last year. With 300 active physician users, PIH cites CPOE adoption rates of approximately 99 percent.

A 60 percent Reduction in Medication Delivery Time

"The activation of the medication management solution is a natural progression in our strategic plan to replace inefficient and often illegible handwritten orders with enabling technologies that support improved clinical workflows, clinical decision making and accuracy,” said Dr. Davis Lee, PIH’s medical director of Informatics. "The tight integration between the Eclipsys CPOE solution and the pharmacy system has eliminated the need to manually transcribe nearly 2,000 medication orders placed daily. It’s made a dramatic improvement in the pharmacy department workflow and it is an essential step toward providing truly excellent patient care across environments.”

According to Dr. Alan Endo, PIH’s director of Pharmacy, since implementing the Eclipsys CPOE system, medication delivery time has been reduced by 60 percent, down from an average of 60 minutes to 24. "Our daily pharmacy processes have been dramatically changed,” said Endo. "Instead of deciphering handwriting, we receive orders that are easy to read and very clear, and the order sets reflect evidence-based guidelines for medication protocols. We’ve been able to redeploy resources to focus on using the pharmacy system to improve patient safety and clinical pharmacy services. Plus, the system is such that you can constantly make enhancements and take advantage of its rich safety check features.”

Setting a Goal of 100 Percent Adoption with Affiliated Physicians

PIH set a goal of 100 percent adoption rate with its big bang activation of Eclipsys’ CPOE solution, Sunrise Acute Care™. Strong physician and nursing leadership and a focus toward physician workflows helped to win over any resistance among affiliated physicians and enabled the community hospital to take away all paper order forms on day one. "Our deep CPOE adoption rate is attributable to the collaborative environment between our informatics department, the adoption committee, and the clinical decision support committees,” said Dr. Lee. "We made it a priority to map out physicians’ workflow, including those of specialties, to overcome fears that the system would slow down order entry. What physicians eventually found is that the Eclipsys CPOE solution actually enabled them to expedite placing orders because it would allow them, for example, to click on 50 orders from an order set, versus placing them individually.”

Eclipsys’ CPOE high adoption rates and speed are a factor of its embedded complex algorithms that transcend fundamental order entry to automatically interpret and recalculate new order protocols in real time based on any updates to the patient condition. With more than 30 years of experience, Eclipsys has leveraged the input of thousands of physicians for evidence-based order sets and frequently used protocols to achieve unmatched, continuous evolution in its CPOE capabilities. Built on the Sunrise Enterprise™ XA extended architecture™, the intuitive, easy-to-adopt solution offers highly complex clinical decision support capabilities that provide workflows tailored to how physicians practice medicine and support fully automating even the most complex order sets and medication ordering, including the exacting protocols, long-range medication schedules and complicated treatment plans commonplace in oncology and pediatric care environments.

"Because CPOE fundamentally changes the ordering process, it can substantially decrease the overuse, underuse, and misuse of health care services. Studies have documented that CPOE can decrease costs, shorten length of stay, decrease medical errors, and improve compliance with guidelines. PIH exemplifies that deep CPOE adoption, close to 100 percent within as little as 15 months, is achievable, even in community hospitals,” said Jay Deady, Eclipsys executive vice president of Client Solutions. "Hospitals waste millions of dollars a year through inefficient paper processes. Eclipsys’ core focus on physician adoption of technology, and looking beyond ‘go live,’ points to our advantages in helping clients meet what we believe will be the forthcoming ARRA requirements for ‘meaningful use.’ In order for our nation to achieve the goals of meaningful use, it will require high rates of CPOE adoption by physicians similar to PIH.”

About Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital

A 444-bed acute care, non-profit hospital, PIH was founded in 1959 with the community’s trust and support – values retained today by maintaining the highest standards in medical services, in turn making PIH the area’s acknowledged leading healthcare center. Through commitment to outstanding patient care, respect and compassion for all, responsiveness, integrity, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship, the PIH team is devoted to serving the needs of its community. PIH’s healthcare team is comprised of a stellar clinical staff of almost 600 board-certified physicians representing a broad range of medical specialties, highly qualified nurses, and other exemplary staff. For more information, see www.PIH.net.

About Eclipsys

Eclipsys is a leading provider of advanced integrated clinical, revenue cycle and performance management software, clinical content and professional services that help healthcare organizations improve clinical, financial and operational outcomes. For more information, see www.eclipsys.com or email info@eclipsys.com.

Statements in this news release concerning the timing of implementations and features and benefits provided by Eclipsys software, evidence-based content and services are forward-looking statements and actual results may differ from those projected due to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Implementation and customization of Eclipsys software is complex and time-consuming. Results depend upon a variety of factors and can vary by client. Each client’s circumstances are unique and may include unforeseen issues that make it more difficult than anticipated to implement or derive benefit from Eclipsys software or services. The success and timeliness of the company’s services will depend at least in part upon client involvement, which can be difficult to control. Eclipsys is required to meet specified performance standards, and the contract can be terminated or its scope reduced under certain circumstances. More information about company risks is available in recent Form 10-Q and 10-K filings made by Eclipsys from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Special attention is directed to the portions of those documents entitled "Risk Factors” and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” Eclipsys Corporation and The Outcomes Company are registered trademarks of Eclipsys Corporation. Sunrise Pharmacy, Sunrise Acute Care, Sunrise Enterprise and XA extended architecture are registered trademarks of Eclipsys Corporation. Other product and company names in this news release are or may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.