One of World’s Largest Bed Management and Radio Frequency
Identification Deployments for Patient Location Tracking Occurs On Time
and On Budget
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2009--
Eclipsys Corporation® (NASDAQ: ECLP), The Outcomes Company®, today
announced that Singapore General Hospital (SGH), Singapore's oldest and
largest acute tertiary hospital and national referral center, has
successfully activated Eclipsys’ Sunrise Patient Flow™ solution. The
on-time, on-budget technology, automation and process redesign project
illustrates how Eclipsys’ integrated and intuitive bed management, bed
turnover and patient flow system can quickly bring operational
improvements to even the most complex healthcare organizations. With
1,500-beds in its acute care environment, and treating 70,000 patients
annually, SGH is successfully using Sunrise Patient Flow to improve the
workflows and communications of its clinical, administrative and support
staff. Combined with real-time clinical visibility, the solution is
yielding substantial clinical and operational advantages as it supports
the goal of optimized patient throughput and efficient delivery of
patient care.
“The bed management system improves patient flow with real-time
information that helps our staff anticipate and manage their workflow,”
said Dr Wong Yue Sie, chief operating officer of the SingHealth Group
and Singapore General Hospital. “Together, we can drive patient flow
through the continuum of a patient's hospital stay with greater
efficiency. Ultimately this creates a safer and more satisfactory
experience for our patients as we can better coordinate the resources
needed to support their care.”
The “big bang” activation of Sunrise Patient Flow was completed in
approximately five months — and without any major disruption in SGH’s
care delivery. Remarkably, hospital leaders continued with the
implementation while the hospital simultaneously dealt with the
emergence of the H1N1 pandemic. The experience gave the team insights on
how to enhance the system further to support future pandemic situations.
Upon entering the hospital, each SGH inpatient receives a radio
frequency identification (RFID) tag. A real-time location system (RTLS)
identifies patient location via the tag— and automates workflow related
to patient movements. As a result, the system enables SGH staff —
whether clinical, administrative or support — to eliminate manual tasks
related to the movement of patients through the system. Instead of
requiring staff members to make multiple phone calls to one another in
an attempt to coordinate patient flow, the system automates
communicating “current” activities and “next step” requests. These
tightly coupled and integrated systems are designed to reduce the amount
of time that clinical and support staff spends behind the computer,
enabling them to allot more time to focus on patient care.
The deployment of Eclipsys’ enterprise-wide patient flow system included
its Bed Turnover module, which is providing SGH’s Environmental Services
with the tools necessary to automate and manage bed cleaning requests,
as well as housekeeping staff assignments to facilitate the timely
cleaning and turnover of beds for incoming patients. The Bed Turnover
module enables real-time communication via mobile personal digital
assistants (PDAs) to notify housekeeping staff of assignments and
coordinate progress, further optimizing and streamlining workflow and
bed turnover time.
In addition, advanced interfaces enable Sunrise Patient Flow to share
information with a variety of ancillary and administrative systems. For
example, it integrates with the emergency department system to
coordinate bed requests and placement decisions. It also “communicates”
with SGH’s third-party patient administration and billing system. Visual
alerts and graphic screens presented via a real-time dashboard drive
caregiver priorities, prompting the most efficient delivery of care.
“The SGH activation is certainly an important milestone for this valued
client and for our company,” said Tim Rutledge, Eclipsys’ senior vice
president of Enterprise Performance Management. “Our structured project
methodology and strong partnership approach has enabled us to help our
clients activate quickly and see a fast ROI. The fact that we were
successful in activating an international client of this size, scale and
complexity validates our process and confirms the strengths of our
solution.”
Sunrise Patient Flow provides both automated workflow and communications
combined with real-time clinical visibility provides greater patient
safety, improved clinical workflow and enhanced clinician/staff
utilization. The Sunrise Patient Flow platform is built with Microsoft
technologies and leverages the latest .NET, WPF, and SQL Server
technologies to facilitate rapid and flexible client deployments as well
as significant usability advantages. Sunrise Patient Flow, together with
the Sunrise EPSi™ decision support and analytic solutions and Eclipsys’
clinical analytics solution, comprise the Eclipsys’ Enterprise
Performance Management™ solution suite.
About Singapore General Hospital
Singapore General Hospital (SGH), a member of Singapore Health Services,
is the public sector's flagship hospital. Established in 1821, SGH is
Singapore's largest acute tertiary hospital and national referral centre
offering a comprehensive range of clinical specialties and clinical
support services in the region with 1,500 acute beds and about 500
specialists. Annually, 70,000 patients are admitted to the hospital and
600,000 patients attend outpatient clinics. For more information, see www.sgh.com.sg.
About Eclipsys
Eclipsys is a leading provider of advanced integrated clinical, revenue
cycle and performance management software, clinical content and
professional services that help healthcare organizations improve
clinical, financial and operational outcomes. For more information, see www.eclipsys.com
or email info@eclipsys.com.
Statements in this news release concerning the timing of implementation
and features and benefits provided by Eclipsys software, evidence-based
content and implementation services are forward-looking statements and
actual results may differ from those projected due to a variety of risks
and uncertainties. Implementation and customization of Eclipsys software
is complex and time-consuming. Results depend upon a variety of factors
and can vary by client. Each client’s circumstances are unique and may
include unforeseen issues that make it more difficult than anticipated
to implement or derive benefit from Eclipsys software or services. The
success and timeliness of the company’s services will depend at least in
part upon client involvement, which can be difficult to control.
Eclipsys is required to meet specified performance standards, and the
contract can be terminated or its scope reduced under certain
circumstances. More information about company risks is available in
recent Form 10-Q and 10-K filings made by Eclipsys from time to time
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Special attention is
directed to the portions of those documents entitled “Risk Factors” and
“Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operations.” Eclipsys Corporation and The Outcomes Company are
registered trademarks of Eclipsys Corporation. Sunrise Patient Flow,
Sunrise EPSi and Enterprise Performance Management are trademarks of
Eclipsys Corporation. Other product and company names in this news
release are or may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.
Source: Eclipsys Corporation
Eclipsys Corporation
Robin Wrinn, 404-847-5219
Director,
Public Relations (media)
robin.wrinn@eclipsys.com
or
Jason
Cigarran, 404-847-5965
Vice President, Investor Relations
jason.cigarran@eclipsys.com
or
Singapore
General Hospital:
Junaidah Hameed, (65) 6321-3553
Communications
(Media)
junaidah.hameed@sgh.com.sg
