business
Quality of care tool brings decision support to bedside
■ A dashboard screen will let physicians see relevant data and information at the point of care.
By Pamela Lewis Dolan — Posted March 23, 2010
A new product aims to improve quality of care by pulling real-time patient information and using it to prompt best-practice suggestions, alerts or other treatment protocols.
The product, Qualibria, is the result of a two-year partnership between GE, Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. It was unveiled during the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society held in Atlanta the first week of March.
Qualibria will display patient data at the bedside using a dashboard-type screen, allowing physicians to quickly review data and have all the relevant alerts and knowledge in one place, at the point of care, the company's backers said. As hospitals prepare to meet the federal government's meaningful use requirements for electronic medical record systems, which include quality reporting, the tool also will allow hospitals to review trends and patterns to assess quality measures.
The platform can be used in conjunction with any existing health IT system, regardless of vendor, and will allow clinical best practices to be shared across many organizations.
GE partnered with Intermountain to build the platform. The Mayo Clinic provided informatics and expertise for the clinical tools.
Mayo Clinic agreed to stay on in an extended partnership role to provide best practice clinical content, protocols, knowledge and care guidelines that will be made available to other Qualibria customers. The tool is expected to be available in late 2010.
