Protocol Compliance Framework

Clinical protocols can provide a framework for clinical decision making that establish parameters for cost, risk and outcome. They are an operational and analytical toolset, fast becoming a mechanism to drive quality initiatives, report Core Measures and improve outcomes. We have created a protocol automation system that provides both aggregated data for analysis and real time feedback for clinicians.

Getting Value from ProtocolsTo maximize the value from a protocol in the hospital, a balance has to be achieved between evidence based medicine and the unique patient treatment decisions made by the clinician.

Our ApproachWe use Amalga in the context of local definition of the protocol to identify the data required and choose the reporting mechanism. Since the data already exists in Amalga, we can easily map new protocols using existing data without major disruptions in the clinical workflow. Once the data is mapped, we provide real-time alerts and feedback through an integrated clinical desktop and aggregated view for retrospective trend analysis. Clinicians can seamlessly move between Amalga and hospital systems for immediate action, while compliance staff can perform analytics on the same dataset.

There is extensive literature to substantiate the value of creating a clinical protocols to physicians, patients and the providers. There is also evidence to support the value of real time protocol reinforcement.

Automating Clinical Workflow Pays for ItselfAutomation reduces the effort to make protocols part of decision making. Even if the hospital uses EMRs and Quality systems, launching a new protocol typically requires retrospective review of charts, new reports and manual data entry, as well as significant education and training effort.

www.calance.com! www.partnersconsulting.comCalance recently acquired Partners Consulting, and in the future both companies will operate under one name as “Partners Consulting, a Calance Company”

About CalanceCalance is an international IT services firm with over 500 staff in the US. We deliver application consulting, managed services and IT resources to a wide range of healthcare clients and across other industries.

Antibiotic Matching Protocol for Infection ControlIn one clinical study, measuring the compliance with a surgical antibiotic protocol, it was shown that proactive intervention can reduce cost of antibiotic treatment by 30% and increase compliance with the protocol by 18%. We developed this use case to demonstrate the value of our application, which automates proactive intervention creating significant impact on a topic of concern for most providers. In this example, we collect the prescribed antibiotic and lab order as a trigger event. Once the lab identifies the culture and identifies susceptibility to different antibiotics, we can generate feedback for the physician along with a recommendation based on the protocol. We integrate the feedback on protocol compliance with the EMR to allow the physician to take direct action from within the Patient Chart• Reduces the risk of over prescribing• Reduces the variations in formulary• Reduces medication costs