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Children’s Hospital Uses Alerts


July 18, 2008

To help ensure that all their patients remain safe, a nurse on the I.T. team at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle devised a clever customization of the organization’s clinical information system that alerts all clinicians about special safety risks and provides tips on appropriate action.

The automation effort was triggered by an incident when a parent inappropriately attempted to leave the hospital with their child, says Danica Pytte, R.N., a clinical analyst who devised the system. The Clinical Action Safety Plan Evaluating Risk, or CASPER, formerly was a paper-based system with limited information, she notes. The alert system was developed using the PowerForm tool within the clinical information system from Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo.

“We weren’t automating a broken system; we were making it better and putting it online,” Pytte says.

Thanks to Pytte’s development work, clinicians at the Seattle children’s hospital now get alerts of a CASPER case when they sign onto the system to view a chart or place an order through the computerized physician order entry component. The hospital’s separate admission-discharge-transfer system, soon to be replaced, also flags CASPER cases with a brief summary that alerts staff members who greet guests.

Pytte made sure the hospital’s 60 social workers had multiple opportunities to provide feedback on the design of the new online system because these staff members as well as security staff create the CASPER reports. In addition to helping improve patient safety, the reports also contribute to the safety of caregivers by warning them about the potential behaviors of patients and family members, she adds.

A story in the July issue of Health Data Management, available here, offers an in-depth discussion of the project.

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