Technology Efforts Improving Patient Care

To help hospitals in North Carolina and South Carolina increase efficiency, coordinate care and reduce medical errors, The Duke Endowment has awarded 110 grants totaling $32.1 million for information technology and regional health information networks.

Insights

Expanding Health Information Network for Full Benefit

Continued investments in health information technology will help improve patient care and help hospitals become more efficient. But since the full benefits will only come when all providers can access and share information across organizations and regions, the Endowment decided in 2008 to focus on developing and expanding regional networks.

In November 2008, trustees approved a $2.4 million grant to the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation in Charleston, S.C., to support E-Health Alliance, a new nonprofit that will electronically link all six hospitals in the greater Charleston service area. The project will use Data Link, a network that links 16 hospitals in western North Carolina, as a model.

Through Small and Rural Hospital Improvement grants, individual facilities can seek help with new technology. In November 2008, trustees approved a $1.4 million grant to give rural hospitals a chance to develop strategic technology plans.

Impact

Early outcomes show positive results, especially in regional networks.

Safer Care, Lower Cost

According to a 2008 evaluation of completed projects:

• Through its medication administration system, one hospital reduced its "Rate of Harm" to zero within 60 days of implementation. Across projects, the averted medication error rate dropped between 4 percent and 39 percent within 12 to 15 months of initial implementation.
• Emergency department tracking systems decreased wait times from 75 minutes to 50 minutes within seven months, even though emergency department volume increased 5.6 percent.
• Using telemonitoring for home health care decreased the number of emergency department visits and hospital admissions. The emergent care rate for the telehealth population was 69 percent less than the home health population. The hospital admission rate for the telehealth population was 58 percent less than the home health population.
• Independent research has shown that Data Link is achieving an annual savings of $3.8 million, based on a reduced number of preventable adverse drug events, decreased administrative costs, and decreased hospital admissions and emergency department visits because of improved access to patient information.

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