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North Karelia Central Hospital
The North Karelia Central Hospital in Joensuu, situated in the Eastern part of Finland, was one of the first hospitals in Finland partaking patient treatment processes in anaesthesia. The hospital was looking into ways to install a modern IT solution for the anaesthesia department and thus a new sophisticated project was born. The nurses and system administrators Kati Rannanmaa and Leena Kurki, together with medical specialist Pertti Hannonen, managed it. They were involved already in the early analysis phase of this project and thus gained deep knowledge about the hospital’s processes and the specific needs for information management systems like Centricity Anaesthesia by GE Healthcare.
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A sophisticated project
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Faster processes and less workload with Centricity Anaesthesia
Today, that the Centricity Anaesthesia system has been running smoothly in Joensuu for about five months, these team members are very happy with their work. They are proud of their achievement for a good reason: availability and visibility of patient records has improved significantly. According to the medical specialist Pertti Hannonen, the implementation of the system has been enjoyable in all its phases and the excellent cooperation between the hospital and GE Healthcare has contributed big times to this success. “Our hospital has an excellent IT department and our software analyst Tomi Tikkanen has been of invaluable help. Also the administration support has been very good”, praises Pertti Hannonen.
It is true that the implementation of the new system required a lot of efforts and training sessions. Nevertheless, its effects can now be seen in faster processes and less workload. Pertti Hannonen thinks that nurses will now have more time for patient observation, care and treatment. “When pencil and paper become obsolete, one can concentrate on the patients,” he emphasizes.
As another significant advantage of the system Hannonen mentions that it also works as a guideline for practical work. Because different default values and clinical pathways can be inserted into the system, there is no need to search for a patient‘s medical information from different papers any more. Now the data already is in the system. Saying this, also the care protocols get standardized and the practices of the treatment are clearly displayed, managed and tracked. “GE Healthcare’s product development has succeeded splendidly and we think that Centricity Anaesthesia is a very good and feasible tool for clinicians”, states Hannonen.
The wishes of Centricity Anaesthesia users have been an important feedback for the product development team. “The suggestions for improvements made for instance by the North Karelia Central Hospital have been reasonable and practical”, thinks Harri Ollikainen, Project Manager IT Professional Service at GE Healthcare. The close cooperation with the product development team during hospital testing phases ensured, that those suggestions were implemented exactly in the right manner. This rigor and consequence made Centricity Anaesthesia a solution fulfilling its users’ expectations. “Frankly speaking, we are really surprised of how beautifully this works and we have had positive feedback particularly from persons who previously criticized all information systems”, tells Pertti Hannonen delighted.
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Stable and work accelerating system
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At the Karelia Hospital the team reports that Centricity Anaesthesia is both, a stable and easytouse system. Because different default settings can be inserted into the system, the treatment process can be planned beforehand much better than in the past. Many good results can be reached by pressing one button, while before as many as six steps had to be performed to achieve the same outcome.
Head nurse Timo Palander explains, how Centricity Anaesthesia will actually affect his work in the future. “Statistical compilation and reporting using this system will be tasks for me together with the chief anesthesiologist”, and adds that head nurses need such systems in their daily practice. Without an information system the data to be reported is scattered. “With the help of Centricity Anaesthesia I get easytouse reports coming from one source“, Palander adds. “I hope that the same core team that has implemented the project will continue driving it to the next level. That group has such a good hold on the system that efforts for constant improvements should not stop now.“
The North Karelia Central Hospital has been an ideal place for this kind of new product implementation due to its patient flow and basic processes being in excellent condition. In addition, the hospital‘s existing OR management software system supports the new anaesthesia information system very well. “The hospital administration has seen it very important to stand in the front line on all these IT matters”, the hospital chief anesthesiologist Mikko Pöyhönen says. Pöyhönen has partaken in the development project along the way, when needed, for administrative consultation and comments on the system development. Pöyhönen has gotten a firm grasp of the solution, as it is a regular part of his everyday clinical work. “Our voices have been heard. Everyone taking part in the system implementation is not a theorists but a practical worker“, notes Pöyhönen.
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Benefit for the patient
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According to Pöyhönen, the use of Centricity Anaesthesia system has a notable benefit for the patient because information of situations that are typically not suffi ciently documented can now be monitored automatically. The system helps to track all relevant information correctly and the inbuilt warning and alert features further increase patient safety. Pöyhönen states that it is possible to check the patient‘s current medication and this information is no longer “under a stack of prescriptions” or dependent on whether the doctor has dictated correctly or not. In short, the information is available to everyone in a clear and correct manner, which is a great asset.
The strive to develop and implement systems like Centricity Anaesthesia stems not only from the national objective to get patient documents into a digital, electrical format, but also from the need to ease the work of medical care personnel. When asked what Pöyhönen expects from the future, he states that there is a need for at least a new OR management software in the hospital. “With constantly advancing technology there is the idea of ‘this also could be administrated a bit better’ surfacing in many matters”, notes Pöyhönen.
“Imagination is the only limit.“
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