SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 21, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Orion Health, a leading provider of clinical workflow and integration technology for the healthcare sector, today reports that their Concerto Clinicals Medication Reconciliation Solution is helping hospitals reduce the number of medication errors and improve patient care.
"Patients need to have confidence in their physicians and in the medications they are taking," said Dr. Chris Hobson B Med Sci, MBChB, Dip HIInf(Dist), Director of Clinical Consulting for Orion Health.
"By using software such as Concerto Clinicals, physicians and patients can be confident their information will be legible and that drug interactions, allergies and dosages will be confirmed and double checked by the software."
According to a report released July 20, 2006 from the Institute of Medicine, medication mistakes injure well over 1.5 million Americans every year with at least a quarter of the errors are preventable. Topping the list of recommended improvements for healthcare providers -- all prescriptions should be written electronically by 2010.
Central Washington Hospital located in Wenatchee, Washington is the major medical facility and referral center for North Central Washington. The Pharmacy staff is responsible for assuring that our patients receive the best and the most appropriate medication therapies.
"Medications reconciliation is a simple theory that is not simply implemented," says Ashish Dhingra, Pharm.D., Director of Pharmacy for Central Washington Hospital.
With Orion Health's Concerto Clinicals Solution, medications reconciliation data becomes a permanent part of the patient's medical profile. This improves the quality of on-going care and simplifies processes for physicians, nurses, and pharmacists so they can spend more time on hands-on patient care.
"You can't put a price on quality patient care," says Dhingra. "Orion Health's Concerto Clinicals Medication Reconciliation value cannot be measured with basic ROI computations. By simplifying medications reconciliation and making the data available to all personnel, the solution gives our staff more time to devote to the patients and ensures that key information is communicated to everyone involved."
Central Washington Hospital is the regional referral center for North Central Washington and offers comprehensive emergency, diagnostic, and treatment services. The Hospital has been awarded recognition as being among the top 100 hospitals in the nation in three categories: Intensive Care Unit, Orthopedics and Community Value.
About Orion Health
Orion Health's easy-to-use applications and tools integrate and enhance existing healthcare information systems and deliver secure, universal access to information. The innovative company delivers an end-to-end information technology (IT) integration platform that brings together clinical content to improve clinician effectiveness and the quality of patient care.
Orion's partners include leading health and IT vendors such as Oracle Corporation, Philips Medical Systems, LogicaCMG, Hewlett Packard, McKesson, and Sierra Systems. Orion also has more than 1,000 clients worldwide including Johns Hopkins Hospital, New York State Department of Health, Central Washington Hospital, US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and many more. More information can be found at www.orionhealth.com.