| Sentara Healthcare added medical device integration | | | | of documenting data. |
| to the Epic system in March, 2008. Biomedical device | | | | Over the past couple of years, Sentra Healthcare |
| integration provides a way to simplify workflow and | | | | System BMDI Project deployed over 250 FDA |
| enhances the value of the Electronic Medical Record | | | | approved medical grade terminal servers. They |
| (EMR). The adoption of medical device interoperability | | | | have run eight Capsule servers, upgraded more than |
| and systems will enable the development of | | | | 150 ventilators and configured thirty-seven Phillips |
| innovative approaches to improve patient safety, | | | | DBS/CS. There are many tools that assist in |
| healthcare quality, and provider efficiency for patient | | | | managing hardware and software support, such as |
| care. | | | | professional system monitoring and HP server |
| Bio-Medical Device Integration (BMDI) integrates | | | | manager integration. The device checks servers for |
| medical devices with clinical information systems to | | | | network connectivity and automatically pages a |
| automatically collect device data such as vital signs, | | | | clinical engineering if anything needs to be fixed. The |
| ventilator, measurement settings, alarms/alerts, and | | | | systems also have reporting maintenance plans, |
| exports the data into an EMR system. This medical | | | | policies and procedures, and back up and recovery |
| device interoperability means that the data from one | | | | tactics. |
| medical device can affect the behavior of another | | | | Sentra Healthcare Systems hopes to expand BMDI |
| device. This interaction is mediated by software | | | | systems to hospitals across the country. Improving |
| running on general purpose computing platforms. | | | | the quality of medical devices will increase the rate of |
| Using BMDI can improve nurses' workflow and | | | | adoption of new clinical technology and improve |
| documentation time, eliminates transcription errors, | | | | patient care. Sentra looks forward to introducing |
| and maximizes EMR investment. It will improve | | | | additional IT tools, devices, and vendors to create |
| patient care and safety, and allow clinicians and | | | | integrated opportunities to improve workflow. |
| nurses to spend more time with the patients' instead | | | | |