MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Oct. 18, 2011 – Deployment of ProVation Order Sets, powered by UpToDate® Decision Support has resulted in cumulative benefits of approximately $1.7 million in increased clinical and administrative staff productivity and operating profits for Southeast Alabama Medical Center (SAMC). That is according to The Business Value of Automating Evidence-Based Medicine: Southeast Alabama Medical Center (Document # HI229945), a case study by IDC Health Insights sponsored by Wolters Kluwer Health, which identified the key benefits realized by SAMC from its use of the evidence-based order set solution to accelerate and improve its order set development process and use of evidence-based medicine as part of its CPOE strategy.
The case study examined the sources of and quantified the return-on-investment from the 400-bed hospital’s use of ProVation Order Sets, an electronic order set authoring and management solution from Wolters Kluwer Health. SAMC, a non-profit regional medical center based in Dothan, Ala., implemented the electronic solution with the goal of compiling and standardizing its 200 existing paper-based order sets for migration to CPOE.
IDC Health Insights found that the implementation of ProVation Order Sets and its integration with CPOE delivers savings from improvements in productivity for staff working on order sets and CPOE implementation as well as in greater efficiencies for clinical and administrative staff. Savings are also generated by a reduction of care delays and the associated costs. As a result, SAMC realized payback on its initial investment in just 15.4 months and achieved average annual savings of:
- $1.3 million in increased physician productivity, due in part to a 70% reduction in order clarifications that returned 148 hours per year to physicians
- $373,760 in increased unit secretary productivity due to an 80% reduction in order entry time
- $76,000 from a reduction in unauthorized overstays caused by delays in order entry
In determining the cumulative benefits, IDC Health Insights examined the processes in place at SAMC to identify areas that were positively impacted by the introduction of the electronic order set solution. Researchers concluded that “the real value is found in automating the order process, eliminating the burden of human error, and reducing wasted time.”
Wrote the authors: “Additional soft benefits will include avoiding medical errors, improving the quality and cost of care by accelerating the implementation of evidence-based medicine, and improving patient and staff satisfaction with the hospital.”
In addition, when revenue gains were converted to operating profits, the result was an annual increase of more than $4,500. In all, IDC Health Insights projects that SAMC will realize a three-year ROI of 463% and cumulative benefits totaling $5.05 million.
The authors concluded: “Initially, savings will come from automating the order set development process, consolidating order sets, and creating multiple element order set capabilities in the hospital with ProVation Order Sets tools. In the long term, implementation of CPOE across the hospital and the subsequent integration of ProVation Order Sets with the CPOE system will increase efficiencies even further, as order set management and maintenance is automated.”
The full case study is available here.
Wolters Kluwer Health’s Clinical Solutions business unit provides evidence-based medical content, workflow based applications software and services that allow clinicians to efficiently and effectively diagnose and document patient care. Key brands ProVation Medical, UpToDate, Medi-Span®, Facts & Comparisons®, Pharmacy OneSource®, Lexicomp™ and Medicom (China) lead in market segments that include drug information, disease information, clinical patient order sets, clinical documentation and hospital pharmacy productivity applications.
About ProVation Medical
ProVation® Medical is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2010 annual revenues of €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion).
