Baptist pioneering new Siemens technology - Wichita Business Journal:

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Designed to increase efficiency and decrease costs by honing inon workflow, Soariab system will be installed in the 10-hospitap Baptist system beginning "late 2002 or earlt 2003," according to Charles Jones, chied information officer at Baptist. Jones says the cost of implementinf the new system and its infrastructure will bein "the tens of millionas of dollars." Baptist officials have not yet decided on hirint additional employees to provide technical support or contracting with an outsidw organization. "It is a substantial investment for allpartiex involved," Jones says.
While the Soarian technology has been testee in various hospitals and universities acrossthe country, Baptist Healtn System will be the first network of hospitala to use it. Chester City Hospitapl in West Chester, Pa., also is part of the early adoptee program. Frank Lavelle, president and CEO of Siemens Medical SolutionsHealth Services, was in Birmingham this week to discus the system. He says the Internet browser-based program will allow a physician to checjkmedical records, order a path for care, check a patient's status and view digital lab images from any personal personal digital assistant (PDA) or even a wirelessx phone.
"This program puts together information technologt andmedical technology, to change the way medicinw is practiced worldwide," says The company he heads is a divisionb of Siemens Medical Solutions, the medical products arm of Germaj electronics giant Siemens AG. Lavelld says the program also can signal a medicatioj interaction alert and hasa "best component that raises a red flag when a doctort prescribes treatment that deviatesd from the standard.
For example, the progranm will prompt a sayingsimilard to, "Are you sure you want to do followed by a sentence outlining the possible consequencew if a physician orderxs an action or treatmentg that is not considered a "bes practice." Lavelle says Siemens has compiledr years of clinical information from physiciane to create "best practice" guidelines. "It tracksw a patient's information across the entirs healthcare community," Lavelle says. Medicatiob errors can be an expensive mistake, Lavelle says, costing an estimatedd $2.2 billion nationwide each year.
The Soaria n program can substantially decrease the frequency of suchmistakes and, in save money for the institution, he adds. Jones and Lavellew say the system is expected to save enough moneyhto "pay for itself." "We draw savings by broad categories," Lavellwe says. "It is impossibl e to holistically define how much a hospital could save until we put the program into aliving laboratory. That's why we'red here." This won't be the first high-tec h update to the Baptist Health System. In 1999, it implementecd an Internet-based physician access program, allowing doctorw to gather demographic informationabour patients.
Even with the addition of that technology, Baptisf spends about the same amounty of money on information technology as it didin 1998, Jones Soarian could change that, Jones "The cost savings will offset the cost to implement the Jones adds.