Arkansas Delta Inpatient-Outpatient Quality Improvement

Project Details -
Completed

The Arkansas Delta Inpatient/Outpatient Quality Improvement project focused on helping to improve the quality of care for persons in the county target area. This was achieved by customizing and using a computer decision support system in a tertiary hospital. Through the project, a clinical pharmacy program and nursing education program were developed to utilize the alerting system and to act upon clinical interventions from the alerting system. Two information technology systems, Misys Insight (tm) and Misys Pharmacy (tm) were implemented to create real-time alerts focused on specific diagnoses among patients within a 23-county target area. A three-year implementation process was designed and developed to implement both systems. In addition to the implementation of the system, a clinical pharmacy program was established to oversee alerts received from the Misys systems, as well as a nursing patient education program. The implementation of both the systems was delayed due to the software development. Although delays occurred during implementation, gains resulted within the CMS Core Measures and the general health of the population within the project area.