Modern Healthcare – August 19, 2019

22 Modern Healthcare | August 19, 2019

Safety & Quality

TRAVIS MAGEE

Dr. Kensaku Kawamoto

Associate chief medical information offi cer

University of Utah Health

Kawamoto has been a leader in interoperability,

having served on national task forces and advisory

committees. At the University of Utah, he launched

the Reimagine EHR initiative. He’s worked with such

companies as Google and Apple to develop an app-

based system that allows data to move freely and

boosts the power of the electronic health record. The

initiatives have earned $25 million in grant funding.

Apps have been launched to improve care for breast

cancer patients, for predictive analytics, and for

newborns at risk of brain damage.

Dr. Stephen Lawless

Senior vice president and chief clinical offi cer

Nemours Children’s Health System

Lawless created Nemours’ Clinical Logistics Center,

a virtual command center that measures and

analyzes every patient’s vital signs. It’s staffed by

paramedics and nurses. In operation since 2012,

the center recently began monitoring patients

to reduce sepsis deaths. There have been zero

unexpected deaths in patients being monitored for

sepsis and a 35% improvement in sepsis response

time rate. Pediatric sepsis fell from 2% to 0.05%.

Dr. Matthew

Kaufman

CEO | StationMD

An emergency medicine physician,

Kaufman got tired of seeing patients with

intellectual and developmental disabilities

being shipped off to the emergency

department for non-emergency cases.

So he founded StationMD, which allows

patients in nursing homes, group homes

or other residential facilities to be seen

by physicians. Agencies using StationMD

have seen an 85% drop in ED transfers and

cost savings in the millions. Beyond that,

the telemedicine program allows patients

to stay in their community rather than

go through the arduous process of being

treated in an ED. The results have had a

positive impact on CMS quality measures

for nursing facilities.