MINNEAPOLIS, MN and SPERRYVILLE, VA. – (September 26, 2017) – VigiLanz, a digital healthcare intelligence firm, and Antimicrobial Therapy Inc., publisher and developer of The Sanford Guide, announced today an exclusive partnership that brings together the market-leading clinical intelligence platform and the industry’s top digital infectious disease content. Doing so provides VigiLanz users with the critical next step in the clinical surveillance process—access to peer-reviewed recommendations on the latest treatments for improved patient outcomes.

The agreement with Sanford Guide, the most trusted name in the treatment of infectious disease, is just the latest in a string of achievements for VigiLanz. Most recently, its antimicrobial stewardship platform achieved the top overall satisfaction rating in the “Antimicrobial Stewardship 2017” performance report from KLAS Research.

The VigiLanz clinical intelligence platform leverages real-time monitoring of thousands of patient care data elements to help improve medication safety, antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention, quality and care management, and patient safety. Its state-of-the-art rules engine analyzes that data and pushes alerts to clinicians at the point of care when interventions and other actions are necessary, driving significant improvements in safety, efficiency, performance, and reimbursement.

“Integrating Sanford Guide content into this process answers the question, ‘What’s next in the antimicrobial de-escalation process?’ by giving clinicians and pharmacists convenient access to the latest clinician-designed treatment recommendations without having to exit the VigiLanz system,” said VigiLanz Chairman and CEO Dr. David Goldsteen, MD, MBA. “We are proud to provide our clients with access to The Sanford Guide’s exceptional content and clinical guidance, more so because we are the first and only clinical intelligence platform able to do so.”

Trusted by clinicians in more than 100 countries, The Sanford Guide is optimized to minimize time-to-answer while providing comprehensive guidance at the point of care. Edited by distinguished infectious disease experts from leading academic and clinical centers, Sanford Guide content provides comprehensive coverage of treatment options for infectious diseases, syndromes, and pathogens. Under the partnership agreement, VigiLanz clients will have access to the full suite of Sanford Guide digital infectious disease content.

With continually updated information based on the latest available evidence, focused anti-infective drug information, interactive dosing tables, and extensive links to references and related resources, The Sanford Guide provides actionable guidance that is accessible, concise, and reliable.

“This partnership with VigiLanz is the most unique collaboration our company has undertaken since its founding nearly 50 years ago. As we moved forward with ever more sophisticated digital offerings, it was imperative that the company we aligned with share our values and commitment to improving the quality of treatment through focused clinical guidance at the point of care. VigiLanz was that company,” said Sanford Guide CEO and Managing Editor Jeb Sanford. “Together we have created a product that fully integrates trusted clinical treatment recommendations with top-rated clinical surveillance tools. Our goal is to improve patient outcomes while minimizing technology burdens on providers.”

For more information on the VigiLanz-Sanford Guide partnership, visit VigiLanz in booth #226 or Sanford Guide in booth #710 during IDWeek 2017, taking place October 4-8 in San Diego, CA.

About Sanford Guide

Since 1969, Sanford Guide has been a leader in point-of-care recommendations for the treatment of infectious diseases. Widely used by pharmacists, physicians, physician assistants, and nurses, Sanford Guide helps to improve patient care by providing carefully curated recommendations based on the latest evidence. With over 1 million users worldwide, Sanford Guide takes pride in responsiveness to customers, the development of innovative solutions, and providing content that is unparalleled in quality and clinical applicability.

About VigiLanz

Founded in 2001, VigiLanz Corporation (www.vigilanzcorp.com) is a privately held, rapidly growing provider of SaaS health care intelligence and predictive analytics. The firm is focused on aggregating disparate EHR transactional workflow and documentation data across health systems to identify real-time clinical issues that avoid or minimize harm, optimize clinical outcomes and support preventive care along the entire health system continuum. VigiLanz supports a large and growing community of hospital CMOs, CMIOs, CIOs, quality teams, infectious disease and control specialists, pharmacists, and other clinicians dedicated to real-time inpatient and outpatient care. VigiLanz is shaping the emerging era of real-time health care by delivering enterprise intelligence technology and services that improve clinical outcomes, patient care and operational effectiveness.

Customer Profile

Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals, the 629-bed Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is a leading medical research institution and teaching hospital caring for children from across the globe. Established in 1883, the healthcare system’s 15,260 employees engage in 1.25 million patient encounters each year, including approximately 34,000 admissions and 103,000 emergency department visits.

Cincinnati Children’s comprises the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, offering comprehensive clinical services ranging from treatments for rare and complex conditions to well-child care. It is the third-highest recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health among pediatric institutions and is among just 7% of hospitals in the U.S. to have earned Magnet-designation (2013-2017) by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S WAS DETERMINED TO DECREASE PROLONGED USE OF VANCOMYCIN

Challenge

With a growing body of evidence associating acute kidney injury (AKI) with an increased risk for development of chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease and mortality, Cincinnati Children’s was determined to reduce rates of AKI among its pediatric inpatient population. Baseline data indicated that, on average, six inpatients each week developed AKI during or within a week of discontinuing a vancomycin course. Additional evidence also suggested that extended courses of vancomycin—which when used beyond four days for empiric courses creates potentially unnecessary exposure to a nephrotoxic medication—may have been unintended.

Thus, vancomycin utilization was a natural target as the healthcare system embarked upon its mission to reduce the risk of AKI in pediatric patients. Specifically, Cincinnati Children’s sought to:

Decrease episodes of acute kidney injury associated with vancomycin use.
Decrease vancomycin exposure.
Decrease prolonged courses of vancomycin.
Increase oversight and approval for prolonged vancomycin exposure.

Success would require a close partnership between pharmacists and physicians that would enable implementation of an innovative, multistep quality improvement program focused on reducing the risk of vancomycin-induced kidney injury in pediatric patients. It also necessitated implementation of surveillance, clinical decision support and reporting technology capable of triggering interventions and educating clinicians on best practices.

Solution

Integrated within an existing antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) and AKI reduction efforts, a core team of pharmacists, physicians, the chief medical resident and a quality improvement expert identified key drivers and implemented interventions including standardized orders, improved medical record documentation and integration of new processes into normal workflow. This enabled a stepwise approach using “plan-do-study-act” cycles.

Cincinnati Children’s also deployed the VigiLanz ASP solution to automate key processes, including screening and monitoring patients. The cloud-based platform leverages data collected from Cincinnati Children’s electronic medical record, physician order entry, laboratory and pathology systems to monitor patients in real-time for drug interactions and ineffective or inappropriate antibiotics. When potential issues are identified, alerts are triggered to enable clinical pharmacists and other members of the care team to take appropriate action.

Outcomes

Leveraging VigiLanz helped Cincinnati Children’s to create a sustainable and scalable framework that guides appropriate and safe use of antimicrobials while also promoting the safe and effective use of other medications. By enabling the provision of enterprise-wide guidance on the use of vancomycin in a matter of minutes each day, the technology helped drive significant improvements. These included:

Decreasing AKI associated with vancomycin exposure to an average of 4 per week from a baseline average of 6 per week, with sustained efforts likely to prevent an estimated 100 cases of vancomycin-associated acute kidney injury per year.
Decreasing vancomycin exposure (days of therapy/1000 patient days) by 43%, putting Cincinnati Children’s below the 25th percentile from a baseline near the 50th percentile.
Decreasing instances of prolonged courses of vancomycin by 44% hospital-wide.
Increasing ASP/ID approval in courses of vancomycin greater than four days to an average of 95% from a baseline average of 53%.

Cincinnati Children’s efforts to reduce AKI were recognized by the Association of Health-System Pharmacists, which gave the health system its 2016 Award for Excellence in Medication Safety.

“…We believe we can decrease the potential downside by choosing antibiotics that are likely to be just as effective but have less risk of increasing antibiotic resistance,” said David Haslam, M.D., an infectious disease specialist who joined Cincinnati Children’s specifically to launch its ASP initiative. “…Some hospitals just say ‘you can’t use that drug.’ Our approach will be ‘you might want to consider [another drug].’ We hope physicians will view this as bringing a lot of potential benefit.”– Silva, Mary. “Finding the Balance.” Research Horizons. Winter 2014.

Month: September 2017

VigiLanz Becomes First Clinical Intelligence Platform to Integrate Sanford Guide Infectious Disease Content

Cincinnati Children’s: Ensuring Safe Antibiotic Utilization Among Pediatric Kidney Patients

Customer Profile

Challenge

Solution

Outcomes