The new system, known as eMAR, is being developed at a joint clinical research center in West Valley, Utah. The companies will utilize clinical information technology that incorporates hand-held devices and bar-coding technologies. The system will also be designed to leverage clinical patient information in order to automatically validate and document prescribed medications.
The move comes as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports that adverse drug events result in almost 770,000 injuries and deaths annually in the US, and cost the nation’s hospitals up to $5.6m each per year. The organization believes the development of computerized monitoring systems, like eMAR, will reduce 95% of those errors.
“Researchers and members of the medical community will work together to create new technologies that improve upon the current system of patient monitoring and enhance patient care by reducing errors that are the result of software that can quantify data, but isn’t smart enough to qualify data,” said Marc Probst, CIO of Intermountain Health Care (IHC).
In addition, GE is also installing its Centricity IT technologies across institutions within IHC’s network, in the hope of enabling the widespread use of the new electronic pharmaceutical profile software.
The alliance between IHC and GE Healthcare is the result of a $100m, 10-year collaboration effort that set out in February 2005 to enhance the patient care process in hospitals and clinics and to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records among health systems in the US.