Submissions are reviewed by experts from the Siemens Consultant Alliance Partners (CAP), a body of consulting firms who are industry leaders and trusted advisors to our customers and prospects.  The “most inspired” customers are honored at the annual Innovations user conference.

Once again, customers demonstrated how Siemens is helping providers make significant improvements to healthcare processes through the creative application of information technology. 

Originators of the "most inspired" responses received a voucher from the Siemens webShop in the amount of $10,000, good for one year, which can be used toward the purchase of educational or consulting services.

Click here to read the press release announcing the “most inspired.”

The 2011 “most inspired” include:

Congratulations to the “most inspired” participants in the Siemens 2010 Inspired Healthcare Outcomes Challenge.

Hats off to all participants, including:

The "most inspired" include:

MedCentral Health System: Decreasing Falls Rate in an Inpatient Setting

Riverside Regional Medical Center: A Facility "NIPs" MRSA Healthcare-Associated Infections via Presumptive Isolation

Susquehanna Health: Streamlining the Business Office by Improving Cash Posting Efficiency

Congratulations to the “most inspired” participants in the Siemens 2009 Inspired Healthcare Outcomes Challenge.

The third annual Siemens Inspired Healthcare Outcomes Challenge yielded phenomenal results, a tribute to what is possible when an organization’s passion for improving patients’ lives is combined with ingenuity and world-class technology.

The Challenge invited customers to share the exceptional outcomes achieved or best practices implemented through the use of Siemens health information technology.

Congratulations to Charleston Area Medical Center, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, and PinnacleHealth System, each of whom was named “most inspired” in this year’s Challenge at the opening session of the Innovations ’09 user conference in Philadelphia, PA.

Once again, customers demonstrated how Siemens is helping providers make significant improvements to healthcare processes through the creative application of information technology.

Submissions were evaluated by experts from the Siemens Consultant Alliance Partners (CAP), consulting firms comprising industry leaders and trusted advisors to our customers and prospects.

Originators of the "most inspired" responses received a voucher from the Siemens webShop in the amount of $10,000, good for one year, which can be used toward the purchase of educational or consulting services.

Hats off to all participants, including:

  > Click here for more information on the Siemens 2009 Most Inspired Healthcare Outcomes Challenge.[469 KB]

Charleston Area Medical Center — Clinical Documentation Improvement

The Soarian® Clinicals rules engine and workflow engine helped CAMC improve its coding process to more accurately reflect patients’ illnesses, thereby helping to improve reimbursement. It increased its congestive heart failure (CHF) capture rate from 35.1% in 2008 to 51% in 2009, contributing to an additional $500,000 in Medicare reimbursements. CAMC’s query acceptance rate by clinicians rose to 93.8% from 39% in the same period, increasing reimbursement for Medicare patients by $1.5 million.

In addition, the organization increased its case mix index for Medicare and all payers – resulting in increased reimbursements of about $2.5 million per year.

“The use of the workflow and rules engines helped us to work smarter. Rather than hire and train a huge staff, we were able to monitor important clinical details so that we focused on the population we could impact quickly and easily – it allowed us to find more low hanging fruit.”
   Ebenetta M. Rhinehart, MBA, RHIS, CCS, CTR

Charleston Area Medical Center —
Improved Nutritional Outcomes through Automated Interdisciplinary Processes

A second CAMC submission, titled Improved Nutritional Outcomes through Automated Interdisciplinary Processes, was judged to be among the “most inspired” as well. A nutritional screening workflow developed with the Soarian® Clinicals workflow engine helped CAMC increase nutritional assessment consultations in the first half of 2007 to 527 per month on average, compared to a baseline of 100. As a result, CAMC is achieving 100% compliance with The Joint Commission’s nutrition screening guidelines. The results are posted online immediately and are available to dieticians, clinicians, and electronic medical records, thus improving productivity. The workflow also helped CAMC avoid incremental clerical costs for reviewing charts of $60-90,000 annually.

“…the number of requests from nutrition screening has increased more than three times what we were getting before. The timeliness of the notification from the Admissions Assessment Workflow means that patients’ needs are being addressed earlier in their stay.”
   Peg Andrews, Nutrition Services Consultant

Denver Health Medical Center — CPOE: Better, Faster, Safer

Denver Health Medical Center’s most inspired submission, titled CPOE: Better, Faster, Safer, chronicled the extensive adoption of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) based on INVISION® Clinicals. More than 95% of lab and pharmacy orders – more than 260,000 orders monthly – are entered via CPOE. Lab result turnaround time decreased by 55.6%, clinicians receive radiology results 61.6% more quickly, and medication is made available for administration 83.4% faster. Denver Health standardized more than 400 care processes with about 120 evidence-based order sets. Its mandatory order sets for care of diabetic patients with ketoacidosis helped decrease ICU and hospital lengths of stay for diabetics by 21% and 29%, respectively.

“We thought doctors were going to be a little reluctant to follow the cookbook. But when they see that something works, they don’t resist it.”
   Dr. Rick Albert, Director of Medical Services
   As quoted in Newsweek, October 16, 2006

PinnacleHealth System — Pneumonia Vaccine

PinnacleHealth System created a pneumonia vaccine workflow using Soarian® Clinicals in conjunction with Siemens Pharmacy and Med Administration Check™. To improve the organization’s ability to manage patients at risk for pneumonia according to CMS guidelines, its clinicians use the workflow to evaluate responses on the past medical history assessment for patients 65 years of age or older to determine if they have ever had a pneumonia vaccine. The technologies helped the organization achieve a 23% improvement in its pneumonia vaccination rate, from 70% compliance before implementing the solution in 2006 to 93% by the end of 2007. Compliance rates continued to improve, to 96% in 2008.

“The new workflow has helped our pneumonia vaccination rates improve each quarter and approach compliance rates in the upper ninetieth percentile. If the workflow process is followed correctly, we have a vaccination history indefinitely and should achieve 100% compliance.”
   Rehtea Deveney, PI Specialist

  Watch Cynthia Brown's Video[7.80 MB]