Electronic Medication Management Increases Patient Safety, According to Australian Hospitals Surveyed by InterSystems

SYDNEY, Australia, May 7, 2014 –InterSystems, a global leader in software for connected care, today announced the results of a recent survey of 30 Australian hospitals, finding that 100% expected electronic medication management (EMM) to lead to increased patient safety.  However, 60% cited complexity or cost of interoperability as a significant barrier to deployment.

InterSystems conducted the survey at the Third Annual Electronic Medication Management Conference in Sydney from 25-26 March 2014. Twenty-six public hospitals and four private hospitals participated in the survey, highlights of which include:

·        – Among the 30 surveyed hospitals, all but one were deploying or planning to deploy EMM systems.

·        – In addition to increasing patient safety, 79% expected EMM to improve productivity and efficiency.

·        – Lack of funding was cited as a key barrier to EMM deployment by 60% of hospitals.

·        – EMM systems needed to interoperate with another 12 systems on average.

“There is universal agreement among hospitals that deploying electronic medication management systems will increase patient safety,” said Darren Jones, Regional Managing Director at InterSystems. “The vast majority of hospitals also expect EMM systems to bring greater productivity and efficiency, although they see a number of significant deployment barriers.”

Among hospitals surveyed, 35% had deployed EMM systems – either within part of the organisation (21%) or throughout it (14%). Another 31% were currently implementing and a further 31% were planning to implement EMM systems. Only one hospital (3%) had no plans to implement EMM.

Of the hospitals surveyed, 69% of respondents expected “better customer service”; 52%, “improved work satisfaction/staff morale”; and 48%, “reduced costs,” in addition to patient safety and operational improvements.

Asked which features of an EMM system contributed to increased patient safety, 93% of hospitals cited “accurate current medication lists.” Another 87% indicated “interaction checking (e.g., drug/allergy)”; 83%, “convenient access to contextually relevant drug information”; 80%, “medication reconciliation”; and 77%, “dosage alerts,” among other beneficial features.

Among the main barriers cited by hospitals intending to deploy EMM were “change management issues” (47%) and “difficulty gaining clinical adoption” (43%), in addition to “lack of funding,” cited by 60% of respondents, and “complexity or cost of interoperability,” also cited by 60%.

When asked how many systems an EMM system needed to interoperate with, 47% of hospitals said “5-10 systems” and 20% said “15-20 systems,” with the average number around 12.

Jones said “there are three main strategies for healthcare organisations deploying EMM to minimise the complexity or cost of interoperability with other clinical systems. One is to standardise on a unified healthcare information system offering a broad range of clinical functionality including EMM. Another is to choose an EMM system with advanced integration capabilities to ease the task and reduce the cost of interoperability.  The third strategy is to adopt a health informatics platform across your organisation to enable strategic interoperability. InterSystems technology supports all three strategies.”

“Victoria’s Portland Hospital, for example, recently deployed EMM across the organisation without complex or costly interoperability issues because they had standardised on the InterSystems TrakCare® healthcare information system,” said Jones. “Other organisations pursuing a best-of-breed clinical applications strategy have also minimised EMM interoperability issues with TrakCare’s inbuilt rapid integration capabilities, or with the InterSystems HealthShare® health informatics platform.”

About InterSystems

InterSystems is a global leader in software for connected care, with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in 25 countries. InterSystems TrakCare® is an Internet-based unified healthcare information system that rapidly delivers the benefits of an electronic patient record. InterSystems HealthShare® is a health informatics platform that enables strategic interoperability and analytics for action across a hospital network, community, region, or nation. InterSystems Caché® is the world’s most widely used database system in clinical applications. InterSystems Ensemble® is a platform for rapid integration and the development of connectable applications. InterSystems’ products are used by thousands of hospitals and laboratories worldwide, including all of the top 15 hospitals on the Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals as rated by U.S. News and World Report. For more information, visit InterSystems.com.au.