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Case Study

North Kansas City Hospital

To streamline nursing workflow and to achieve paperless documentation, North Kansas City Hospital in Missouri embarked on an organization-wide upgrade of its clinical software solutions to transition physicians and staff away from paper charts. Finding an electronic replacement for their long-standing “pink sheet” was a struggle. Historically, the “pink sheet” part of the paper chart was where nurses left non-urgent questions and notes for doctors.

Countless discussions and intensive research led the hospital staff to Crossings Healthcare Solutions with its integration to the Cerner® Millennium system. Crossings became the solution of choice because of its breadth and depth of software offerings, notably the Physician Notification tool, an award-winning decision-support package that includes prompt renewal of expiring medications and restraints, effective management of Foley catheters and central lines, and non-disruptive communication to the physician.

“This is an excellent communication tool that connects physicians and nurses, as well as other clinicians,” said Todd Beardman, MD, a hospitalist at North Kansas City Hospital. “It provides patient information for various clinicians in one view, without having to interrupt the doctor.”

Following the initial implementation of the physician notification tool, the hospital added the Patient Care Dashboard, a flexible Mpage view that displays nursing, quality and patient-care metrics in real time. The staff also selected the Table of Contents (TOC) MPage to highlight action items – such as when a patient needs to take medication – with icons and colors so nurses can quickly address them.

Peggy Donovan, Clinical Informatics Director at North Kansas City Hospital, noted that workflow has been enhanced after NKC’s documentation overhaul and integration of Crossings’ solutions. “As we look at TOC automation and embedded alerts like the Electrolyte Advisor and Quality Advisors, we can see a future workflow with less pop-ups and more natural workflow alerting. Cerner has great tools in the Millennium system, and Crossings helps us take full advantage of these tools in support of quality patient care.”