The Vitals on Welch Allyn and Nihon Kohden

If your clinicians use Welch Allyn or Nihon Kohden vital sign monitors, you may want to check out this press release to learn how Halifax Regional Medical Center connected vital sign monitors from both manufacturers to its EHR.

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There are a few things that I find particularly interesting about Halifax’s implementation:

• Only one MEDITECH R711 interface. Halifax Regional operates the MEDITECH Client/Server EHR. And they’re doing something many hospitals think is impossible — they’re sending both manufacturers’ vital signs through a single R711 interface. So, it is possible. Why is this important? Because it saved Halifax money.
  
  
• Clinicians verify results on Welch Allyn devices. The clinical workflow process is super-streamlined at Halifax. They measure a patient’s vital signs using a Welch Allyn monitor, verify the results on the monitor while they’re still at the bedside, then they press the “Get Monitor Data” button in MEDITECH to pull the verified results into the EHR. Sheryl Watson, RN, Halifax Regional’s Clinical Informatics Supervisor, told us, “They love it. The new process has decreased the time spent documenting vital signs and virtually eliminated the possibility of error.”
  
  
• Improved patient satisfaction. You probably already know that sending vital signs electronically into your EHR can improve patient safety and nursing satisfaction. But did you know that it can improve patient satisfaction, too? Clinicians at Halifax have reported being able to spend more time with patients since go-live. “They get to talk with the patients more instead of looking at the computer screen,” Sheryl added. “Evidence suggests that spending more time with patients is the very thing that improves patient satisfaction.”

Halifax uses Accelero Connect to connect their Welch Allyn and Nihon Kohden monitors to the hospital’s EHR. We’ll be demonstrating Accelero Connect on August 19^th and August 25^th at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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We hope to see you online. In the meantime, if you have questions or would like to find out more, post a comment or email me at MDIblog@iatric.com.