SUNY Downstate Medical Center believes that efficiency directly translates to quality of patient care. Considering that the center—the only academic medical center in Brooklyn—serves a borough of 2.6 million people, the drive for efficiency is at the top of the hospital’s priorities.
“We began looking at an EDIS because our paper-based system wasn’t keeping up with demand,” said Dr. Nizar Kifaieh, associate medical director of the emergency department at SUNY Downstate, referring to his facility’s search for a new Emergency Department Information System. “We felt we could perform faster and more accurately by switching to an electronic system.”
Dr. Kifaieh and his project team conducted an analysis of the top EDIS alternatives, narrowing their candidates to just a few finalists. They looked at the systems with the highest installs, the best recommendations from their peer hospital LISTSERV, and their own analysis of the products’ feature sets. The
T SystemEV® 2.6 emerged as the winner.
“We liked the charting and tracking features of the
T SystemEV,” Dr. Kifaieh noted. “We realized its integration of patient-specific information like prescriptions and drug allergies, as well as its comprehensive tracking dashboard, would help reduce wait times and improve productivity.”
Spanning the entire ED process from triage to discharge, the
T SystemEV 2.6 is a comprehensive system that gives emergency department staff minute-by-minute control of patient status and care. The package, which resides on a centralized server, communicates with handheld devices and tablets as well as desktop and laptop computers.
SUNY Downstate went live with the
T SystemEV 2.6 in September. “One of our goals was to expedite our billing and coding process,” said Dr. Kifaieh. “The
T SystemEV lets our physicians enter their notes into the record directly, with no transcription needed,” he stated, adding that the system reduces errors by providing more accurate billing codes.
Version 2.6 of
T SystemEV includes a number of valuable new features as well. A new Core Clinical Data Module automatically retrieves and populates the patient record with data from prior visits, while a Computerized Provider Order Entry capability enables fast switching from documentation to order entry, lab results, medications and care protocols. Of special interest to SUNY Downstate, however, was the system’s electronic export and storage capabilities.
“With the volume of patients we see, locating charts quickly is a top priority,” Dr. Kifaieh noted. “Before the T SystemEV we were tracking down as many as 30 charts a week. That number is now zero.”
The
T SystemEV 2.6’s efficiency has also shown itself in reducing the department’s coding backlog. “Since we installed our new system, we’ve gone from a 20-day backlog to four days—a reduction of 80%. Our number of incompletes has dropped dramatically as well,” reported Dr. Kifaieh.
SUNY Downstate believes the
T SystemEV 2.6 is a critical element in emergency department efficiency. “The ability to quickly see and track patient records, to access prior visits quickly, and to monitor prescriptions all in one place, is a major step forward,” Dr. Kifaieh concluded. “The T SystemEV has allowed us to operate faster and better.”
About T-System:
Founded over a decade ago, T-System, Inc. and T-System Technologies, Ltd. (The T System), combine an uncommon collaboration of clinicians, technologists and service professionals dedicated to serving the current and future clinical documentation needs of emergency medicine. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, T-System is the leading provider of clinical documentation solutions for emergency medicine. Today, more than 2,000 civilian and military emergency departments in the United States, Puerto Rico, Australia and around the world partner with T-System for their clinical information needs. For more information, please visit www.tsystem.com or contact Joe Lastinger at (800) 667-2482.
About SUNY Downstate Medical Center:
SUNY Downstate Medical Center is the only academic medical center in Brooklyn, Staten Island, or Queens, comprising a College of Medicine, School of Graduate Studies, Colleges of Nursing and Health Related Professions, a public health degree program, and the 376-bed University Hospital of Brooklyn. A major research center, it also is home to an Advanced Biotechnology Park and Biotechnology Incubator.
