Virtua and GE Healthcare announced today that they are collaborating to implement new solutions to help increase efficiencies, lower healthcare costs and improve patient care throughout the health system. Virtua is adopting GE’s AgileTracTM Asset Manager and Enterprise Capacity Management Solution, an automated workflow solution that allows healthcare staff to better track a patient’s inpatient experience, as well as manage the hospital’s assets, ultimately reducing costs and increasing patient satisfaction. AgileTrac is validated under GE’s healthymagination initiative, dedicated to improving the quality, access and cost of healthcare.
“Virtua has been working with GE Healthcare since 2000 to implement processes and technologies that have saved $25 million to-date, and we’re looking forward to driving incremental productivity, while improving patient care and continuing to meet our goal of making every patient’s experience world-class,” said Richard Miller, President & CEO, Virtua. “Central to our future growth is our alliance with GE and applying novel technologies, such as AgileTrac, across Virtua to increase efficiencies and deliver better, more cost-effective care.”
GE’s AgileTrac system is a comprehensive workflow solution that leverages Real-Time Location System (RTLS) technology to help hospitals better manage inventory, streamline the patient care cycle, automate inpatient workflow and increase staff productivity. The technology’s workflow engine drives process improvement for the entire hospital -- from maximizing the use of operating rooms to ensuring that a patient’s length of stay is optimized. Flat-screen monitors with visualization software will be located throughout the hospital in units like the ER, where doctors and nurses can use touch-screen features to see at-a-glance where patients, staff and equipment are located and receive alerts that notify appropriate personnel when a patient is ready for the next step in the care cycle. Real-time tracking of medical equipment will help control asset expenses by driving increased utilization levels and helping locate items, such as infusion pumps, that are often forgotten or misplaced and redistributing them to reduce patient wait times.
“Using innovative technologies such as AgileTrac, GE can help hospitals improve their bottom line by providing real-time insights into the care process,” explained Rob Reilly, General Manager of Solutions, GE Healthcare. “AgileTrac will help staff optimize the use and distribution of medical equipment, as well as streamline patient care by ensuring on-time starts for procedures, reducing patient wait times and expediting admission and discharge.”
Virtua’s collaboration with GE began in 2000 by leveraging GE tools and processes such as Six Sigma®, Lean, and Change Acceleration Process, to drive broad-based hospital improvement in areas such as clinical outcomes, patient and staff satisfaction, market growth and financial results. Virtua now posts the highest operating margins of any hospital in New Jersey, continues to be named Best Employer in the area, and received a Gold Achievement Award for the excellence of its stroke assessment program in 2008.
“We project significant additional savings over the next 10 years based on using novel technologies to reduce unnecessary spending on equipment and supplies, increase the number of patients treated and decrease length of stay,” says Miller.
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