/24-7PressRelease/ -Bellevue, WA, September 20, 2008 -- Sentri7, an electronic patient surveillance tool, has enabled multiple hospitals and health systems across the country to make great strides in improving patient safety with medication-related issues in multiple hospital departments. Below are examples of the individual hospitals' recent achievements:
One hospital's risk department had identified Celebrex-related adverse drug reactions associated with serum creatinine levels. Within five minutes a rule was written and deployed within Sentri7, and all patients on Celebrex with serum creatinine _ 1.2 were identified and monitored within that organization to prevent ADRs. They have also developed a list in Sentri7 to identify patients on particularly irritating medications and medications that have a high predisposition to blowing veins.
Chris Virgilio, Clinical Coordinator at Washington County Hospital, was able to set up a list in Sentri7 looking for all patients on the drug heparin who also had low platelet counts or had seen a reduction in platelet counts by 20% over the last three days. "We identified about 4 patients last year with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. With Sentri7 we are finding about 4 per month!" Virgilio said. The Quality Management department also has a list set up to identify patients at high risk for falls and Nutrition Services uses Sentri7 to identify patients on Coumadin to put them on a diet that is low in Vitamin K.
Simone Bellamy, Clinical Coordinator at Arkansas Heart Hospital, set up a list in Sentri7 for statins. Simvastatin is the hospital's main "statin" of choice, and they substitute it for all other "statins." But, if a patient is on amiodarone as well, the maximum recommended dose of simvastatin is 20mg. So this list gives Simone all patients who are on simvastatin in a dose greater than 20mg who are also on amiodarone. Then she knows to go write an order to decrease the simvastatin dose. Case Management Nurses at this facility are also tasked with using Sentri7 to identify patients not in compliance with CMS quality measures related to heart failure and acute myocardial infarction.
Diana Schultz, Medication Safety Pharmacist at Alvarado Hospital, said this about her use of Sentri7: "We are able to monitor the effects of medications much more efficiently with the program. We have developed lists for monitoring, for identifying costs saving opportunities and for identifying possible contraindications for medications. The pharmacist can quickly target patients that will benefit from pharmacist interventions."
At Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, a pharmacy resident observed that pre- vs. post-Sentri7 implementation data showed a 500% increase in total interventions documented from a cardiology pharmacy satellite and a 1600% increase in cost savings attributable to those interventions.
Halifax Regional Hospital's microbiology laboratory uses Sentri7 to identify culture results that would indicate that a particular antibiotic would be resistant in a patient. "I'm impressed with Sentri7's ability to retrieve almost any type of data that you would want to review or utilize. I'm building lists (rules) in Sentri7 to identify organisms with certain resistance patterns and plan to generate interventions and management reports to improve the utilization of antibiotics," said Susan Dalton, microbiology supervisor.
The laboratory staff at another hospital can now identify patients on oral oncology agents who are immuno-suppressed. The use of gamma irradiated blood products are indicated in these patients to prevent a serious, possibly life threatening complication called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). They did not have an easy way to identify these patients in the past.
Dr. Virgilio said it best: "We have prevented significant patient harm and saved lives because of the ability of Sentri7 to easily construct rules, filter out unnecessary work, prospectively identify potential medication errors and present the data in an intuitive format."
Sentri7 by Pharmacy OneSource combines medication, laboratory and patient data to facilitate earlier, better and more consistent interventions that can lead to shorter lengths of stay, lower costs, improved patient safety and reduced antibiotic resistance. More information about Sentri7 can be found at: http://www.sentri7.com.
About Pharmacy OneSource (www.pharmacyonesource.com)
Pharmacy OneSource is pharmacy's #1 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider. Our more than 60 innovative team members provide best-in-class, SaaS solutions to current and future challenges within health-system pharmacy worldwide. Our SaaS solutions contribute to high performance pharmacy through better outcomes, lower costs and system-wide results. More than 1,200 healthcare organizations worldwide utilize our HIPAA compliant web-based services: Accupedia, Amplifi, Quantifi, ScheduleRx, Sentri7, Simplifi 797, and UnitStock.
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