Jackson, Mich.—Plexus Technology Group, LLC (Plexus TG), a market-leading provider of Anesthesia Information Management Systems (AIMS), is pleased to announce that Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) successfully implemented Plexus TG’s innovative Anesthesia Information and Medication Management Solution. By choosing the combined solution, NVRH’s anesthesia department upgraded from paper records and simultaneously improved their medication supply, safety, documentation and reconciliation processes.
Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital simplified their perioperative workflow by integrating the documentation between Anesthesia Touch™ and their MEDITECH EMR. Leveraging the interoperability standards strengthened by the CMS Meaningful Use initiative, clinical data from the patient’s pre-operative nursing record is imported wirelessly into Anesthesia Touch.
“The patient’s history, allergies, and meds all flow into the iPad. Having that information literally at our fingertips streamlines our pre-anesthesia evaluation, helping us avoid delays and keep the OR suite running on schedule,” explains Carroll Ruhlman, Chief CRNA at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital.
Efficiencies continue in the operating room, where multiple systems work together seamlessly to ensure safe and consistent patient care. Plexus TG’s MediCart™ ensures that anesthesia has 24 x 7 access to a full range of medications at the point of use. Single-sign-on integration activates the Codonics’ Safe Label System® (SLS), where bar code scanning confirms the medication, updates the MediCart inventory, and immediately produces a full-color, standards-compliant syringe label. The patient’s intraoperative record is charted on touchscreens attached to the anesthesia machines. Information from the monitors including vital signs and ventilator settings streams digitally into Anesthesia Touch, freeing the anesthetist from repetitive data transcription. Scanning the syringe label at the point of delivery completes NVRH’s patient safety goal of bar coded anesthesia medication administration.
As the surgery ends and the patient is transferred to post-op care, benefits continue. The MediCart integration prompts the anesthetist to reconcile any discrepancies between dispenses and deliveries, as the intraop record is completed and filed paperlessly into the patient chart. The Pharmacy Touch™ solution provides NVRH’s pharmacy with a closed-loop audit trail for controlled substances. The hospital’s IT department continues to work with Plexus and their EMR to enhance the integration, to bring anesthesia’s medication deliveries automatically into the medication administration record (eMAR).
“Our search for an AIMS grew from the desire to link anesthesia with our electronic medical record,” said Andrea Dinneen, MBA, MPH, Chief Information Officer at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital. “In Plexus, we found a partner that shared this vision, enabling us to have the best of both worlds: a system that the users love, and one that’s connected beyond the walls of the OR.”
“NVRH came to us with the familiar challenges of paper record-keeping and its impact across disparate departments,” observed John Pearson, Vice President of Plexus Technology Group. “Leading by example, they have proven that interoperable solutions are not just for big academic medical centers. We are proud to be a part of their ongoing success story.”
About Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital
Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, a community, not for profit, acute care, critical access hospital, is located in Vermont’s historic Northeast Kingdom. Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital provides high quality, cost-effective medical care to their community and they offer a broad range of services that allows them to match patient needs with the best possible medical care. Their staff is a collaborative group of highly trained medical professionals whose common goal is to provide excellent, comprehensive health care to the community.
About Codonics
Codonics is a global business and provides the medical industry with the most advanced medical imaging and patient safety products in the world from our headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Since 1982, Codonics has experienced exciting growth and award-winning achievements. Today, they are represented in 110 countries with more than 30,000 product installations in renowned, cutting-edge medical facilities throughout the world. To learn more, visit www.codonics.com.
About Plexus Technology Group, LLC
Plexus Technology Group, a subsidiary of MiraMed Global Services, is a leading provider of anesthesia information management and medication management systems. Anesthesia Touch is a full-featured AIMS for both Windows and iOS platforms that supports concurrent charting and streaming physiologic data. Pharmacy Touch, a modular add-on to Anesthesia Touch, eliminates duplicate documentation, reduces drug errors, and delivers narcotic tracking, charge capture, and decision support at the point of care. For more information, visit www.plexustg.com.
