Baptist pioneering new Siemens technology - Wichita Business Journal:

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Designed to increase efficiency and decrease costs by honingf inon workflow, Soarian systen will be installed in the 10-hospital Baptis t system beginning "late 2002 or early 2003," according to Charlee Jones, chief information officer at Baptist. Jones says the cost of implementinf the new system and its infrastructure will bein "the tens of millions of dollars." Baptis t officials have not yet decided on hiring additional employeees to provide technical support or contracting with an outside organization.
"Itt is a substantial investmen t for allparties involved," Jones While the Soarian technology has been testedr in various hospitals and universities across the country, Baptistg Health System will be the first network of hospitalxs to use it. Chester City Hospital in West Chester, Pa., also is part of the earlu adopter program. Frank Lavelle, president and CEO of Siemens Medical SolutionzHealth Services, was in Birmingham this week to discuss the He says the Internet browser-based program will allo a physician to check medical order a path for care, check a patient's statu s and view digital lab images from any personakl computer, personal digital assistant or even a wireless phone.
"Thiw program puts together information technology andmedical technology, to changew the way medicine is practiced worldwide," says Lavelle. The companyt he heads is a division of SiemensMedical Solutions, the medicaol products arm of German electronics giany Siemens AG. Lavelle says the program also can signa a medication interaction alert and hasa "bestg practice" component that raises a red flag when a doctor prescribes treatment that deviates from the For example, the program will prompf a saying similar to, "Are you sure you want to do followed by a sentence outlining the possible consequences if a physicianh orders an action or treatmenty that is not considered a "best practice.
" Lavellse says Siemens has compiled years of clinica information from physicians to create "best practice" guidelines. "It tracks a patient's information acrosxs the entire healthcare community," Lavelle Medication errors can be an expensive Lavelle says, costing an estimated $2.2 billionj nationwide each year. The Soarian program can substantially decreased the frequency of suchmistakes and, in save money for the he adds. Jones and Lavelle say the system is expecte to save enough moneyto "pau for itself." "We draw savingxs by broad categories," Lavelle says.
"It is impossible to holistically define how much a hospital could save untilo we put the program into aliviny laboratory. That's why we're here." This won'tg be the first high-tech update to the Baptistt Health System. In 1999, it implemented an Internet-based physicia n access program, allowing doctors to gatherf demographic information about Even with the addition ofthat technology, Baptist spends abou the same amount of money on informatiom technology as it did in 1998, Jones Soarian could change that, Jonez believes. "The cost savingxs will offset the cost to implementfthe technology," Jones adds.