Cooper First in the US to Integrate Fully-Automated Dialysis Monitoring in EHR

June 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Camden, NJ—Today, Cooper University Hospital is the first hospital in the country to begin the use of an electronic medical system for transmission of real-time critical data on dialysis patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The system, built by NXStage using iSorona software for the interface, allows the physician to monitor complex clinical data from any location in real-time.   This unprecedented advancement provides the physician access to vital signs and critical laboratory values to determine if the dialysis is being administered at an effective level.  

Critical care patients who are on continuous dialysis in the ICU have four-points of data collected every hour; 96 times per day. This new system collects this information automatically and calculates critical fluid volume changes that determine the amount of treatment delivered.

This new tool, which is integrated through the EPIC electronic health system, is the first of many real-time data collection and monitoring advances that will bring extensive benefits to critical care patients.  The automated continuous monitoring also greatly reduced the possibility of medical error secondary to incorrect documentation.  

“The new system automatically calculates several complex equations that are used to determine treatment parameters,” said Lawrence Weisberg, MD, Head of the Division of Nephrology at Cooper University Hospital. “This remarkable advancement allows us to save critical time when treating some of our sickest patients.”

Cooper University Hospital was selected last year as a beta site to begin piloting the program. The success of the pilot and Cooper’s readiness to integrate the software into its electronic health system allowed the hospital to lead the country in using this important medical technology.

“By utilizing this new technology effectively with dialysis treatment, we hope it will lead to a similar automated system for continuous, real-time monitoring of critical data on ventilator patients in the intensive care unit,” said Mary Jo Cimino, RN, BSN, Clinical Director of the ICU at Cooper.