In a previous set of interviews with Jim O’Brien, MD, MSc, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety, Ohio Health Riverside Methodist Hospital and Stephen Claypool, MD, Medical Director, POC Advisor, Wolters Kluwer, we learned about the ravages of sepsis and how POC Advisor’s electronic surveillance and alerts assist in sepsis detection.
To continue our “Countdown to HIMSS’16” series, I contacted Ginny Kwong, MD, Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer, Halifax Health. Dr. Kwong and her organization just recently partnered with Wolters Kluwer (HIMSS’16 booth #5537) to implement POC Advisor in 2016.
When we spoke, some of the topics she outlined included:
- how healthcare has approached sepsis in the past;
- the inherent difficulties of accurately detecting sepsis;
- her philosophy for working effectively with vendors;
- the steps Halifax Health took in selecting Wolters Kluwer as a partner to address sepsis and
- her organization’s projected goals for POC Advisor.
(Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series. We will publish the progress of Halifax Health’s efforts utilizing POC Advisor to address sepsis later in the year. To hear audio excerpts of this interview, click on the media player buttons that run throughout this article.)
I. Halifax Health
Before discussing sepsis and its impacts, Kwong provides a description of Halifax Health, one of the busiest healthcare organizations in the state of Florida.
II. Sepsis awareness and its impacts on healthcare
Kwong offers her view for the need of a higher level of sepsis awareness in our industry and the general public as well. She also outlines the numerous negative effects of sepsis within our national healthcare system.
III. Past problems with sepsis detection
Kwong describes the difficulties providers have historical faced when attempting to detect sepsis. She goes on to breakdown the clinical pathways administrators must consider and how technology must be married to revised workflow processes in order to effectively detect and quickly treat sepsis.
IV. Relationship with vendors
Kwong makes the claim that when creating solutions for conditions such as sepsis, only vendor-partner relationships which encourage the open exchange of information can lead to better care outcomes for patients.
V. Method of finding a vendor partner
Kwong outlines the multi-disciplinary approach and the “re-designed pathways” that her team considered when evaluating possible vendor technologies to address sepsis in their patients. Kwong closes her answer by detailing a Wolters Kluwer presentation at HIMSS’15 that helped convince her and her team to implement POC Advisor at Halifax Health.
VI. Goals
Kwong describes the goals she hopes to attain after implementing POC Advisor at Halifax Health.