« May 2009 | Main | August 2009 »

June 13, 2009

School of Nursing Group Wins with Business Intelligence Project

The third annual BI Awards honored three campus innovations that not only save time and resources for their own unit or business function, but show promise for use elsewhere in the University - and beyond. The School of Nursing Pressure Ulcer Workgroup was awarded an honorable mention.

In 2005, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services changed its policy so that hospitals no longer receive additional compensation to care for patients who acquire pressure ulcers while under their care. This prompted the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) to review the data it uses to assess risk, prevention, and management of pressure ulcers.

A daily automated feedback system was developed to supply UMHS clinicians with vital information regarding ulcer risk, status, and intervention. The reports, which are delivered to clinicians via email at 5 a.m., aggregate pertinent data to provide an actionable summary. The clinicians use the report to keep tabs on their patients, determine the need for interventions, charge nurses, and support decision making.

Patients with pressure ulcers tend to experience longer lengths of stay and may require outpatient care. The data gathered from the automated feedback system can be mined for cost effectiveness analysis, and to determine whether it contributed to reduced length of stay, ulcer rates, or severity.

Posted by slickman at 12:29 AM