Vendor Response

HCIT vendors are delivering more robust and tightly integrated clinical
solutions in response to market demand
Unlike with earlier systems, vendors are now expected to deliver next
generation clinical applications that:
o Support multi- and interdisciplinary care, i.e., nurses and allied health
professionals, e.g., physical therapy (PT), respiratory therapy (RT),
social services, and so forth, with all provider orders, care plans, and
notes online and integrated in a common patient-centric patient
record.
o Promote data integrity via data validity checks and embedded tools,
e.g., intravenous (IV) dose/drip calculators.
o Provide ready access to internal standards, e.g., policies and
procedures, and external knowledge bases, e.g., reference guides and
drug databases.
o Enable evidence-based care via automation of integrated
multidisciplinary clinical pathways and incorporation of decision
support mechanisms, e.g., prompts and alerts.
o Collect work load management data as a byproduct of clinical
documentation, including deriving prospective acuity data from orders
and retrospective acuity data from clinical documentation.
o Support productivity management, staffing, and budgeting activities.
o Support process and outcomes monitoring, management, and
continual improvement via standard reports and database mining.
o Support charge capture, supply management, and inventory
reconciliation, e.g., replenishment of supplies and medications as a
byproduct of clinical documentation.
o Support for medical (case, quality, risk, utilization, and infection
control), disease, and population management.
EHR vendors recognition of the vital role of nursing is evidenced by the
number of appointments of nurse executives and growing investments in
nursing and interdisciplinary system capabilities.
With strong clinical leadership and increasingly supportive systems, nursing
has as unparalleled opportunity to leverage IT for the well-being of our
patients and profession.

Care Flow Diagram

It is a conceptual model that represent a patient-centric, interdisciplinary,

inpatient-oriented view of a clinical information system that supports a fully
integrated EHR
Includes care components, e.g., care planning and documentation that are
automated in EHR systems as well as, in whole or part, in niche and
departmental applications

It reflects how core care components are interrelated and how clinical data
are shared among multiple care providers
The diagram is intended as model for use as an education tool, framework for
product evaluation, and benchmark for vendor comparison