Saint Vincent Health System to Connect Caregivers with McKesson’s Horizon Clinicals Solution

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saint Vincent Health System in Erie, Pa., has chosen to upgrade and extend its current clinical systems with McKesson’s Horizon Clinicals^® Care Team Release. With its “one patient, one care team, one plan” approach to support care delivery and care planning, the Care Team Release is the first solution to unify the medical and interdisciplinary care plans, driving evidence-based practice across all members of the care team. Saint Vincent Health System plans a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) that will be used to facilitate communication among the entire care team and provide easy access to patient information, ultimately helping clinicians provide better, safer patient care. The health system also will deploy tools to support physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other caregivers in departments ranging from the emergency department to the pharmacy.

“In a fast-paced clinical environment, the ability to confidently make life-saving decisions makes all the difference,” said Robin Stursa, vice president and chief information office for Saint Vincent Health System. “Information is what drives those decisions, and automation across the continuum of care is essential to ensure that information is delivered consistently. We chose McKesson after a thorough discovery process because we felt they achieved the right balance between proven products and technological advancement for our needs.”

Both hospitals in the system, Saint Vincent Health Center and Westfield Hospital, will upgrade their electronic patient record storage technology to McKesson’s Horizon Patient Folder™ document imaging solution. McKesson currently is working to convert nearly 51 million images stored in the existing database into the newer document imaging system, which will allow care teams throughout both facilities to access the patient records. Plans also call for the implementation of Horizon Patient Folder Analytics. This business intelligence tool will provide a dashboard illustrating business process optimization goals and efficiencies in the health information management (HIM) department. The tool is designed specifically for the HIM professional, integrating a variety of data sources to deliver timely information and insight into key performance indicators.

Saint Vincent Health Center will deploy several other solutions in the Horizon Clinicals product suite. Nursing documentation will transition from a previous electronic system to McKesson’s workflow-based computerized nursing documentation solution. Once deployed, all authorized members of the care team will be able to view information on the patient’s allergies, past medical problems and admission history. McKesson's solutions will further support care team collaboration and care planning with a variety of tools to enhance communication, ranging from clinical alerts to a standard access portal for clinicians. To provide physicians with “anytime, anywhere” secure electronic access to patient information, Saint Vincent Health Center will deploy McKesson’s Web-based physician portal. Using the portal, physicians can review patient test results, orders and diagnostic results regardless of location – hospital, office, home, or elsewhere – enabling more-informed decision-making.

The deployment plan calls for Saint Vincent Health Center to implement McKesson’s emergency department information system (EDIS) and tracking board to help support patient safety. If the patient is admitted to the hospital, the same EHR begun in the ED will be used by clinicians to continue to document and track his or her care. Additionally, plans call for the implementation of Horizon Meds Manager™ in the pharmacy with bar-coded patient identification facilitating continued medication safety initiatives, including advanced tools to support the medication reconciliation process.

“We’re excited to partner with Saint Vincent as it works toward creating a more connected and collaborative care environment that will benefit both clinicians and patients,” said Duncan James, group president, Health Systems Solutions, McKesson Provider Technologies. “We look forward to being part of their journey as they work to improve their performance and the care they provide to the community.”

About Saint Vincent Health System

Saint Vincent was founded in 1875 by the Sisters of St. Joseph as Erie’s first hospital. It now stands as an integrated health care delivery network serving an area of nearly a million residents in northwestern Pennsylvania and adjacent areas of northeastern Ohio and southwestern New York State. Anchored by Saint Vincent Health Center, the system also includes Westfield Memorial Hospital in Westfield, N.Y., the Saint Vincent Outpatient Center at Union City, the Saint Vincent Surgery Center, the Saint Vincent Medical Group and Saint Vincent Rehab Solutions. The health system is a partner in the Regional Cancer Center, EmergyCare/LifeStar, the Community Blood Bank and Home Health Services in addition to other affiliations providing a continuum of health care services throughout the region.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 18th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. McKesson is the longest-operating company in healthcare today, marking its 175^th anniversary this year. Over the course of its history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com.