HEALTH AND BEAUTY CLOSE-UP-23 October 2008-Survey Indicates that Order Set Software Delivers Benefits in 3 Areas for Hospitals(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com

Process improvements, regulatory compliance and patient safety were the top three areas in which hospitals "greatly

Of the hospital managers surveyed whose facilities were currently utilizing order set software, 67 percent cited process improvements as the area they believed to have benefited most, 47 percent cited regulatory compliance and 53 percent cited patient safety. Reduced costs for malpractice/medical errors and increased patient satisfaction were cited by 13 percent of respondents.

The survey, conducted by Renaissance Research, consisted of telephone interviews with 43 hospital managers who were likely to be involved in order sets creation and management. These included P&T Committee chairs, nursing directors, pharmacy services directors, risk management directors and risk/compliance managers. Sixty-five percent of the facilities surveyed used paper-based order sets and 35 percent used software.

Key findings include:

- Software users were "very satisfied" with its functionality in the areas of authoring (53 percent), reviewing (60 percent) and approval (60 percent), the three areas of the order set development process that all respondents identified as the most challenging.- All of the hospital managers surveyed indicated the use of electronic documents for patient orders had at least "moderate value," while 87 percent indicated it had "great value." However, just 21 percent were actually writing patient orders electronically.

"The results of this survey make it clear that automated order sets, such as ProVation Order Sets, have emerged as an important tool in hospitals. They help facilities improve clinical performance and regulatory compliance by establishing standards of care and advancing the practice of evidence-based medicine," said Arvind Subramanian, President and CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. "In addition to helping hospitals meet these objectives, ProVation Order Sets also reduces administrative costs and improves clinician workflow by providing the most accurate and up-to-date medical evidence at the point of care."

ProVation Order Sets is an actionable, evidenced-based order set authoring and management solution that allows hospitals to put evidence-based healthcare into practice by establishing and maintaining standards of care.

Wolters Kluwer Health, a division of Wolters Kluwer, is a provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.

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