SUNY Downstate Rolls Out Electronic Health Record System
Mar 17, 2008
Centralized Patient Information Enhances Patient Care, Facilitates Operations, Improves Research
Brooklyn, NY - SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University has begun a multi-year journey to deploy a sophisticated Electronic Health Record (EHR) to enhance patient care and safety, facilitate clinical research, and optimize operations for University Hospital at Downstate (UHD) and its community. Recently, UHD went live with Phase One of the project, SUNY HealthBridge, with a highly successful rollout.
SUNY HealthBridge is employing the Eclipsys Sunrise clinical suite of applications to achieve these goals. The suite includes:
- Computerized Physician Order Entry – allows physicians and other licensed practitioners to enter patient medication orders directly into the system. The system’s sophisticated logic evaluates orders for potential allergies and interactions with other medications, and checks for duplicates, thereby reducing the risk of medication errors. It also eases compliance with regulatory and national patience safety goals.
- Sunrise Pharmacy – this module tracks all medication orders, including intravenous drips. Pharmacists can verify medication orders to ensure safe and timely release of medications to the UHD nursing staff. UHD expects to exceed the Institute for Safe Education Practice’s goals for medication safety.
- Knowledge-Based Medication Administration – facilitates the accurate and timely documentation of a patient’s medication administration record.
When fully integrated, SUNY HealthBridge will be the central source of patient information. Using its structured flow sheets, Downstate practitioners will be able to electronically document all aspects of patient care, including clinical laboratory and radiology results. The information will be instantly accessible to many users simultaneously and from any location with an internet connection. Thus, all members of UHD’s clinical community will have complete, timely, accurate, and secure access to their patients’ information, whether they are in the hospital, in their office, or at home.
SUNY HealthBridge is a twenty-first century tool that allows Downstate’s physicians, nurses, and other clinicians to make the already outstanding care that they deliver even more stellar. Coupling this powerful technology with process improvements and expanded use of evidence based medicine underscores Downstate’s commitment to being a leader in patient-centered health care, patient safety, and clinical research.
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About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn is one of four academic health centers (AMCs) in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system and the only SUNY AMC in New York City dedicated to health education, research, and patient care for the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Its flagship hospital, University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), is a teaching hospital and benefits from the expertise of Downstate’s exceptional medical school and world-class academic center research facilities. With a staff of over 800 physicians representing 53 specialties and subspecialties, Downstate offers comprehensive healthcare services to the community.
UHD provides high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis for kidney diseases and is the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn. Beyond its clinical expertise, Downstate houses a range of esteemed educational institutions, including its College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Public Health. Downstate fosters innovation through its multifaceted biotechnology initiative, the Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT, which support early-stage and more mature biotech companies.