Use of a Proven Framework for Computer Decision Support within the Intermountain Healthcare Network.

Hospitalized patients in the U.S. do not always receive optimal care.

Automated detection of physiologic deterioration in hospitalized patients.

Objective: Develop and evaluate an automated case detection and response triggering system to monitor patients every 5 min and identify early signs of physiologic deterioration.

Materials And Methods: A 2-year prospective, observational study at a large level 1 trauma center. All patients admitted to a 33-bed medical and oncology floor (A) and a 33-bed non-intensive care unit (ICU) surgical trauma floor (B) were monitored.

Enhanced notification of infusion pump programming errors.

Hospitalized patients receive countless doses of medications through manually programmed infusion pumps. Many medication errors are the result of programming incorrect pump settings. When used appropriately, smart pumps have the potential to detect some programming errors.

Rapid identification of hospitalized patients at high risk for MRSA carriage.

Patients who are asymptomatic carriers of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are major reservoirs for transmission of MRSA to other patients. Medical personnel are usually not aware when these high-risk patients are hospitalized. We developed and tested an enterprise-wide electronic surveillance system to identify patients at high risk for MRSA carriage at hospital admission and during hospitalization.

Unit-wide notification of ventilator disconnections.

The alarms generated by mechanical ventilators when patients become disconnected can blend in with other typical sounds of the intensive care unit. Ventilator alarms that go unnoticed for extended periods of time often result in permanent patient harm or death. We developed a unit-wide system to monitor ventilator disconnection alarms.

Enhanced notification of critical ventilator events.

Mechanical ventilators are designed to generate alarms when patients become disconnected or experience other critical ventilator events. However, these alarms can blend in with other accustomed sounds of the intensive care unit. Ventilator alarms that go unnoticed for extended periods of time often result in permanent patient harm or death.