Study: Next-gen systems coming for hospitals

Hospitals should brace themselves for an onslaught of new clinical information systems, according to a new report from First Consulting Group. Soon, hospitals can expect to see a rash of new monitoring and transactional options, including advanced CPOE systems, med reconciliation systems, drug and infection surveillance, remote consultation, patient self-management and data mining systems. These systems should help hospitals better track and report on quality initiatives, the report said.

To prepare for the advent of such systems, hospitals should begin by clearing the decks for new vendors offering these new capabilities, First Consulting says. For example, hospitals may want to consider taking on a different vendor for med reconciliation if their existing vendor isn't rolling the latest roster of technology improvements quickly enough.

However, some new systems will be harder to rip and replace than others. For example, rolling out next-gen CPOE functionality, much less adding a new system, is a particularly difficult effort which touches every order, patient, nursing unit and physicians. To get CPOE in place, hospitals will typically need to focus first on a smaller number of order sets and basic med screening, use those to get physicians on board, then consider a broader rollout.

To get extensive data from the study:
- read this Health Data Management article
- read the report

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