The vast majority of patients now get a vaccine assessment, and if appropriate, a vaccine. About 13 percent of patients still do not get an assessment, a number U-Penn is trying to reduce.
Meet the Nursing I.T. Innovation Award Winners
Cullman (Alabama) Regional Medical Center took first place in the 8th annual 2013 Nursing I.T. Innovation Award contest, which is conducted by Health Data Management. Cullman's winning entry-judged by a panel of nursing informatics experts and Health Data Management staff-used I.T. to improve discharge communications with patients. Runner-up for the Silver prize was Texas Health Resources, whose project tackled catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Winning the Bronze was Penn Medicine, for its nurse-driven vaccine protocol project. The winners were selected from several dozen entries submitted to Health Data Management last fall. Judges evaluated the entries based primarily on the project's demonstrated benefits, nurse role and overall innovation. The award goes to a team of nurses and is open to provider organizations across the industry.
What the Judges Looked For
To enter the contest, contestants prepared an essay of up to 1,250 words answering the following questions:
1. What is the nursing I.T. project that is worthy of recognition?
2. What is the technology involved?
a. For off-the-shelf products, please describe what additional configuration was required to achieve the system functionality associated with the nomination, and the role that nursing played in making configuration decisions.
b. For home-grown products, please describe the role that nursing played in the development of the system functionality associated with this nomination.
3. What is innovative or groundbreaking about the project?
4. What are the measurable results/outcomes of the project? Be as specific and detailed as possible. Examples of results may include: achieving tangible improvements in the quality of care; reducing the time nurses spend on non-care activities by automating tasks; improving workload management through telehealth technologies and other systems; enabling performance improvement through data analytics and reporting.
5. How does the project support quality improvement?
Focus areas may include the Institute of Medicine's Domains of Quality: effectiveness, efficiency, equity, patient-centeredness, safety, and timeliness. Projects may support other federal and regulatory reporting programs, such as meaningful use or Joint Commission requirements.
In addition, the essay described the contribution of nurses to the project and whether a nurse was the project leader, product manager, trainer, implementer or executive sponsor.
Meet the Judges of the 2013 Nursing I.T. Innovation Award Contest
The award recognizes innovation and excellence in using information technology in the field of nursing to directly improve the quality of care and patient safety while maximizing nursing resources, improve the work experience of nurses, or to help further the professional practice of nursing. The award is presented to a team of nursing professionals at a health care organization (hospital, physician group practice or any other care-giving site). At least one of the primary coordinators of the I.T. project must be a nurse. The project must be ongoing.
To qualify for this award, a health care organization must submit an essay with detailed information on the nursing information technology project and the specific, measurable results of that project. The contribution of nurses to the innovative project must be clearly identified.
Following are profiles of the judges:
* The co-founder of the Nursing I.T. Innovation Award, Susan K. Newbold, R.N., is a healthcare informatics consultant and director of the Nursing Informatics Boot Camp, based in Franklin, Tenn. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a fellow in the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society. A pioneer in nursing informatics, Newbold created a nursing informatics review course in 1995, co-edited five books and has written numerous articles on informatics topics.
* Contest co-founder Dana Womack, R.N., is a senior health informaticist in the Health Strategy & Solutions Group at Intel Corporation. Formerly a consultant, she has helped commercial, non-profit and federal entities launch new health I.T. initiatives, and has helped develop and implement applications for point of care use. Womack holds a master's degree in nursing informatics from the University of Utah, and has particular interest in the intersection of data visualization, operational informatics, and healthcare quality.
* Cindy Esser is the director of emerging technologies at Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania. Responsible for the strategy and identification of new innovative technologies, Esser was the founder and champion of the award winning technology for the 2009 Nursing Information Technology Innovation Award. Prior to working in healthcare technology at both McKesson and Marconi, she formerly served as director of strategic services for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and a manager of healthcare consulting at Deloite.
* Verna Tereceita (Terry) Laidlow, R.N., is a healthcare initiative specialist at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, School of Nursing in Baltimore. She holds degrees in trauma critical care, nursing education and nursing informatics. She is currently a member of ANIA-CARING. Laidlow was instrumental in implementing an organization-wide, integrated, electronic protocol that won the bronze award in the 2011 Nursing Information Technology Innovation contest.
* Gary Baldwin, the editorial director of Health Data Management, has been covering health care since the early 1990s. Baldwin has won seven national editorial recognition awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors. He earned a masters degree in journalism from Roosevelt University, Chicago.
