BAPTIST HEALTH Uses Real-Time Clinical Surveillance from Thomson Reuters to Lower Costs and Improve Quality in th...( ANN ARBOR Mich. Dec. 4 /- BAPTIST HEA...),Health

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- BAPTIST HEALTH, a six-hospital system based in Little Rock, Ark., and the state's largest health system, has expanded its use of Clinical Xpert(TM) CareFocus from Thomson Reuters -- a solution that enabled the system's pharmacists to increase necessary clinical interventions and save more than $1 million.

"Data we collected for the 220-bed North Little Rock campus show that CareFocus prompts approximately half of the pharmacy clinical interventions that occur in this facility," said Kevin Robertson, Pharm.D., BCPS, pharmacy clinical coordinator for BAPTIST HEALTH Medical Center-North Little Rock. "Since the deployment of CareFocus, pharmacist efficiency has improved and the number of clinical interventions documented has increased by around 30 percent. The interventions identified by our clinical pharmacists have accounted for an average cost savings of $39,000 per month for the North Little Rock facility, with over $1 million dollars saved since the initial project began at this facility.

"We expect further increases in the number of interventions, cost savings, and improved outcomes based on enhancements made to our current CareFocus profiles and the addition of new ones resulting from our collaboration with the Thomson Reuters clinical consulting team," said Dr. Robertson.

CareFocus, a clinical surveillance solution, enables clinicians to build profiles that identify high-risk patients within the active hospital census based on their medications, laboratory and radiology results, vital signs, diagnoses, active orders, demographics, and other reports. Patients who meet a profile's criteria are segmented into lists that are delivered to a clinician's Palm, Windows Mobile, or BlackBerry(R) smartphone and to a Web portal for anytime access. By identifying these high-risk patients early, hospitals can significantly improve clinical outcomes while reducing morta
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