2008
Reconcilable Differences: A Washington healthcare enterprise works collaboratively to create a comprehensive medication reconciliation solution.
The following is an excerpt from an article published in Health Management Technology, January 2008. This excerpt describes the initial development of MedsTracker and Design Clinicals’ work with Valley Medical Center (VMC) to implement it.
To read the full-length article, please go here.
The Solution
Howell’s first prototype of the application contained just slightly more than 100 medications. With tens of thousands of potential medications and pharmacy solutions available, Howell knew that they would need help in creating the extensive drug database. Both VMC and Howell had a significant working history with California-based First Databank Inc.; Howell chose the company’s CPOE-ready drug database OrderView Med Knowledge Base. OrderView’s “Orderable Medication” concept would facilitate clinicians’ use of drug descriptions based on patient parameters for completing medication orders in one or two mouse clicks. “I had worked with First DataBank previously and knew that they were creating databases that work like clinicians think,” says Howell.
Howell was soon able to put together a software prototype using a Web platform. While the early prototype involved inactive screens that simulated the look and feel of the finished software, it provided the necessary view of eventual functionality that led to the go-ahead for completion of the finished software. This process lasted for five weeks and once consensus was reached, the goal was to deliver the finished solution by early summer. Within six months, Howell had developed a product called MedsTracker to meet the needs of not only the transfer and discharge of patients but also to include the 8A requirements of producing the list of medications the patient was using at home. Additionally, Howell and VMC were also responsible for making the solution work in non-hospital areas, such as clinics and ambulatory care areas encompassed within the healthcare enterprise.
“We had two days set aside for clinician review in February in our IT training room where we projected the application on screen and walked through the process a step at a time to gain user acceptance,” says VanHoomissen. “We also had the application on a training computer so that they could physically interact with the application.”