Month: October 2022

Hospitals are relying on healthcare software solutions now more than ever to manage their resources effectively, provide optimal care to patients, and support staff when possible. However, it is important when hospitals are seeking out a solution that they choose one that can deliver on the promise healthcare software solutions can bring, and not one that will increase workloads for hospital staff.

Features these solutions should have include:

• Integration: The system should integrate with your EMR systems, and it should be able to leverage multiple types of data—including patient demographics, medication orders, pharmacy orders, and lab results.
• Configurability: The system should adapt to your processes and workflows, providing customized forms and enabling automated notifications and communication processes that align with your desired workflows.
• Security: The system should adhere to current industry security standards, including data encryption in transit and at rest, role-specific privileges, compliance with third-party security attestations, and providing security audit reports. It should also undergo vulnerability and penetration testing multiple times per year from a reputable outside firm.
• Accessibility: The system should be accessible via approved mobile devices, and it should support mobile viewing without requiring an app download. That way, staff can easily document and review events when they are connected to the hospital network.
• Training: The system’s training program should include live training and on-demand modules to ensure optimal use by existing staff and new staff.
• Support: The system should provide a healthcare-experienced service and support team, including a main point of contact that rapidly responds to inquiries and requests. This contact should answer questions; assist with building custom forms, charts, and reports; and help explore additional capabilities when new needs arise.

At VigiLanz, we have ensured that our healthcare software solutions check these boxes with a platform that can provide meaningful data analysis across your entire hospital, helping you to make smarter business decisions and optimize care. Our platform includes solutions for pharmacy surveillance, infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, safety surveillance, and more.

Looking to implement a new healthcare software solution that improves safety event reporting? Check out our Hospital Safety Event Reporting Buyer’s Guide to learn more about what to look for in a solution.

Business intelligence represents the collection and analysis of data to enable organizations to make strategic decisions, enhance processes, and minimize inefficiencies. Healthcare business intelligence, when applied to the massive amount of medical records, insurance claims, and billing information found in every hospital, enables systems to improve administrative operations and reduce unnecessary costs.

VigiLanz, an award-winning provider of clinical surveillance, safety, quality, and risk solutions, employs healthcare business intelligence throughout its platform to deliver meaningful insights that boost efficiency and elevate outcomes for all areas of care.

Here are a few of our solutions that deploy healthcare business intelligence:

Audit: Streamline the full audit lifecycle and help create and maintain an efficient, repeatable audit process, so hospitals can effectively evaluate improvement initiatives and scale programs when appropriate.

Risk and Claims: Boost the efficiency of workflows throughout the entire lifecycle of claims and litigation events and identify risk-reduction and damage-control opportunities. Risk and claims solutions enable the easy entry, management, and escalation of claims and budgets; analysis of department-specific and enterprise-wide data; and mitigation of risks and prevention of future incidents.

Patient Relations: Streamline management of patient and visitor feedback, identifying opportunities to improve patient satisfaction and service recovery. This solution can help transform patient satisfaction at your hospital by minimizing time managing patient feedback, and streamlining reporting and investigation processes.

These solutions are key components of VigiLanz’s award-winning clinical surveillance platform that enables a “whole-hospital” view of data analysis, helping systems to make smarter business decisions and to optimize care.

Want to learn more about the importance of healthcare business intelligence and how VigiLanz applies it to help you? Check out these additional resources:

• Audit
• Risk and Claims
• Patient Relations

The hospital safety landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years, especially as hospitals deal with the pandemic and its lasting impact. As a result, there have been many lessons learned, and a greater interest in patient case management software to improve patient safety.

To learn more about these shifts, VigiLanz released the fourth annual Hospital Patient Safety Report, based on a survey of 100 hospital executives and clinical leaders. Below are answers to top questions regarding hospital safety:

How do hospital leaders feel they are doing in terms of improving patient safety?

While many (89%) hospital leaders report that the pandemic exposed safety vulnerabilities within their hospital, around one-third believe they have not done enough to address those vulnerabilities.

The good news is that 78% of hospital leaders say that the pandemic has led to initiatives that have improved patient safety, and 71% say it has made improving patient safety a higher priority. This shift has accelerated interest in patient case management software to better manage safety issues.

What patient safety challenges are hospitals currently facing?

The biggest safety problem hospitals are facing is hospital acquired infections (44% of responses). Additionally, only 58% of hospital executives and clinical leaders say most hospitals have made meaningful, long-term improvements to address pandemic-exposed infection prevention vulnerabilities. Among pharmacy-related challenges, top challenges include medication errors, drug shortages, and antimicrobial stewardship.

What do hospitals think of patient case management software?

Hospitals see the value in patient case management software to target specific safety challenges. When asked in what instances would a clinical surveillance solution be most helpful, respondents answered:

• Identifying antibiotic overuse (92%)
• Identifying and managing safety events (81%)
• Identifying medication errors (81%)
• Identifying potential infections and outbreaks sooner (81%)

In addition, 92% said clinical surveillance software was helpful in enhancing their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patient case management software is becoming an essential tool for hospitals as they manage safety challenges and seek to enhance safety for patients, staff, and visitors. Check out our patient case management software to learn more about tools available for your hospital!

Hospitals have identified medication errors as a top safety problem, with only 42% of respondents in a survey of 100 hospital leaders saying their pharmacy surveillance efforts are very effective. However, reducing medication errors and antibiotic overuse/misuse only rank fifth and sixth in hospitals’ safety priorities.

With VigiLanz’ 5-time Best in KLAS medication management software, hospitals can easily receive the pharmacy data analytics they need to anticipate, prevent, and respond to adverse drug events while experiencing the following benefits:

Maximized efficiency:

• Rapidly evaluate patients of interest with efficient rounding tools
• Easily manage alerts in real-time
• Dramatically reduce manual chart review

Standardized protocols:

• Enhance compliance with standards of practice
• Automate drug oversight with customized alerts and usage reports
• Receive protocol-based dose adjustment recommendations

Improved medication safety:

• Reduce ADEs with real-time alerts
• Manage medication dosing
• Optimize high-risk medication use

Enhanced pharmacy data analytics and reporting:

• Access up-to-date reports and analytics at any time
• Automate required reporting to NHSN
• Enhance visibility with an enterprise-wide dashboard

Lower costs:

• Identify cost-savings opportunities
• Manage high-cost drug use
• Understand usage patterns by location, provider, and service

By using pharmacy data analytics from VigiLanz’ medication management software, Freeman Health System saved an estimated $4.7M in medication error avoidance over an 18-month period.

Learn more about the benefits of medication management software and pharmacy data analytics, and how they can help your hospital today! Check out further resources below:

• VigiLanz Pharmacy Surveillance
• Hospital Patient Safety Report 2022
• Medication Error Spotlight