Sayers Healthcare Injects Dose Of IT Ingenuity

Solution providers such as Sayers Healthcare, a business unit of Chicago-based Sayers Group, view the report as a corroboration of what they already know, as well as a call to offer new solutions to customers.

The July 21 report, "The Decade of Health Information Technology," is a 10-year initiative calling for the adoption of electronic records management systems, digitizing patient records and prescriptions, and other improvements. Cited in the report is a 2001 study from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences that put the number of deaths from various medical errors at 45,000 to 98,000 a year. The study also found that up to 7,000 deaths and 7 percent of hospital admissions occurred each year specifically as a result of adverse drug effects, many of which could have been prevented with better technology.

Health-care organizations have often been slower than other markets to adopt new IT technology due to factors such as the cost of the technology, a lack of standards and uncertainty about ROI, and it is important for solution providers to address those concerns.

Since many health-care errors occur during the administering of medicine to patients in hospitals, Sayers is helping to ensure that patients in its customer hospitals are receiving the proper medicines and dosages prescribed for them.

"The delivery of medication at the bedside is one of the major sources of problems," said Al Bibergall, senior vice president of sales at Sayers Healthcare. "Are the patients getting the right dose of the right medication at the right time? Are you giving it to the right patient?"

Sayers designed a solution based on a mobile cart from Rubbermaid equipped with a wireless Dell laptop, several drawers for medications and a handheld scanner from Symbol Technologies. The cart is also equipped with a UPS from APC to provide independent power as nurses or doctors make their rounds.

Medical practitioners use the scanner along with RFID technology incorporated in patients' wristbands to access medical histories and other records in order to check the dosage and names of medicines being administered. Software from MediTech is used to match medication information with each patient's wristband.

Sayers initially consulted with a variety of health-care professionals to develop the solution, surveying numerous pharmacists, hospital IT departments, nurses and doctors to design the solution to their needs.

"Each of those people are equally important to the implementation and deployment of this solution. We feel our solution truly focuses on the culture and nuances of the field," Bibergall said.

Sayers also took numerous factors into consideration when designing the solution. "We had to make sure the particular solution works for the staff How many beds are there on the floor? How much space is between the beds? How wide are the hallways? Where are the nursing stations located?"

Each of the factors affected the size and design of the carts, the strength of the wireless antennas and access points, and the number of carts provided to each hospital. The solution has been installed in many hospitals throughout the United States, with an average of 125 carts per hospital, Bibergall said Sayers is planning to expand its solution to other needs in the hospital, such as phlebotomy, the collection and testing of blood.