Picis and Emergency Excellence Partner to Help Improve Emergency Department Performance Through Benchmarking

Emergency Departments Gain Valuable Insight Into Opportunities for Improvement and Cost Control

Bethlehem, PA  - July 29, 2011. Emergency Excellence (EmEx) and Picis are pleased to partner on an initiative  designed to help increase the adoption of EmEx-Compare, the leading emergency department benchmarking and survey service,in emergency departments using, or looking to implement, Picis ED PulseCheck EMR™.  EmEx-Compare benchmarks each emergency department against other hospitals around the US, and looks at best practices across more than 100 emergency department benchmark criteria.  Each key performance indicator (KPI) is mapped to seven distinct EmEx Pillars of Excellence – safety, satisfaction, space, staff, support, system, and solvency. 

Mark Reiter MD MBA, EmEx CEO, notes, "Hospitals need performance indicators that are unambiguous and tailored to emergency medicine. The Picis Emergency Excellence partnership will help deliver the information and tools that hospitals need in order to help them achieve excellence in emergency care."

The emergency department benchmarks have been carefully selected to be relevant, measurable, meaningful, and evidence-based, resulting in performance improvement opportunities. Emergency Excellence surveys the entire emergency department team, providing valuable insight and ideas to help clinicians improve quality and performance, as well as staff and patient satisfaction. After the data is acquired, , the emergency department receives a comprehensive, personalized benchmarking report that helps identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The referenced report includes graphical and numerical information on the emergency department’s performance, as well as tangible suggestions for maximizing quality and achieving best practices. An emergency physician consultant then reviews the report with emergency department and hospital leaders. Top performing emergency departments are eligible for the Emergency Center of Excellence award, the first national designation for superior emergency department care. 

Mark Reiter notes “We are very excited to join forces with Picis because working together, we can have a tremendous impact on helping hospital’s improve emergency department operations. Picis has an incredible track record in helping emergency departments become extremely efficient, patient-oriented, and cost-effective.  Picis excels at allowing emergency departments to collect and track the data that an emergency department leader needs.  Similarly, Emergency Excellence helps  hospital leadership make the most effective use of data to help improve  emergency department performance.”

Kristen Acord Lalowski, RN, Vice President, Product Management and Product Marketing at Picis reports: “Emergency Excellence’s benchmarking service is a perfect fit for our ED PulseCheck ED EMR product and will help us provide tremendous value to emergency departments leaders who are looking for  improvements in clinical quality, patient flow, and patient and staff satisfaction.  This partnership allows us to further invest in the success of our client emergency departments, allowing them to improve quality of care while reducing costs.”

About Emergency Excellence
Emergency Excellence was founded in 2008 to help hospitals improve performance and recognize excellence in emergency care.  Emergency Excellence provides a variety of emergency department performance improvement services including benchmarking, interactive dashboards, patient callbacks, and consulting. Emergency Excellence designates the Emergency Center of Excellence award to top-performing emergency departments.  More information about Emergency Excellence can be found at www.emergencyexcellence.com.

About ED PulseCheck
Picis ED PulseCheck is the only high-performance ED EMR that delivers a complete set of management and operational tools to optimize ED performance and interoperability with a hospital’s HIS system. In addition, ED PulseCheck offers charge capture documentation for full, optimal reimbursement combined with exceptional ease of use. More information about Picis ED PulseCheck can be found at www.picis.com

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