CareSuite SmarTrack

Intelligent patient tracking for the perioperative environment

CareSuite^® SmarTrack, part of our total perioperative automation applications, is an interactive tool that speeds and simplifies the tracking of surgical patients through the perioperative process — from the patient’s arrival in the perioperative suite through discharge. It tracks the status and locations of patients and resources, and compares their progress to user-defined carepaths and critical checkpoints. This unique system not only displays information at a glance on customizable screens, but also proactively notifies staff when a patient is not moving predictably through the perioperative process. No other vendor provides this level of perioperative patient tracking. Such intelligent and advanced tracking saves time and money, improves productivity and promotes a smooth flow of patients through surgery, resulting in improved patient, family and staff satisfaction.

Intuitive online tracking
SmarTrack optimizes communication and patient flow throughout the perioperative process with intelligent tracking of patients and resources while providing proactive notifications to ensure that patients move efficiently through the OR. SmarTrack automatically notifies staff via e-mail, text messaging and/or pager when critical events occur, such as when a patient is ready for surgery or has not met surgery preparation requirements. This intuitive approach enables staff to make adjustments in the surgery schedule before bottlenecks occur and helps hospitals to maximize OR time and efficiently manage resources.

Intelligent critical carepaths
SmarTrack incorporates predictive carepaths in the surgical episode, including the expected elapsed time between checkpoints. The system then uses this information to compare a patient's actual progress to the predicted carepath. SmarTrack proactively displays information and immediately notifies staff so they can take action before delays or problems impact patient satisfaction or the OR schedule.

Customized views and Big Board displays
SmarTrack tracks patient wait times and helps hospitals improve quality of care by providing quick access to accurate and current information. This information can be instantly communicated throughout a hospital or healthcare system, allowing medical staff, administrators and family members to know the status and location of patients at all times while helping to support decisions about the deployment of resources.

It provides customized, secure tracking views that display relevant information regarding patients or resources within one facility or multiple facilities. These views can be customized for family waiting rooms, surgeons’ offices, admissions and other “need to know” areas. Multiple locations can be displayed on one screen to provide a quick, comprehensive look at patient status in the OR.  Departmental messaging allows the OR to display messages to the staff, such as notifying them when an OR room has been closed or when the next departmental meeting will take place.

SmarTrack views can also be displayed through a standard Web browser, so a surgeon’s office can track the progress of patients as they proceed through the OR.

Integrated documentation to improve productivity and compliance
SmarTrack reduces phone calls by providing accurate patient and resource information at the point of care. It seamlessly integrates with the scheduling and documentation portions of CareSuite OR Manager, making updates to SmarTrack when case record information has been documented for items such as patient in OR room time or patient in PACU time.

Streamlined support for multiple facilities
Since 1973, Picis has designed solutions that help optimize the efficiency of healthcare — whether in one facility or multiple facilities. SmarTrack incorporates Picis' integration expertise and proven multifacility automation into intelligent patient tracking in the OR. This functionality streamlines dictionary building and reporting, maintains consistency among sites and allows organizations to share information — while accommodating individual site differences. Since its development, SmarTrack has incorporated multifacility functionality and flexibility into each component of the system, such as critical checkpoints, macros, screen building, documentation and reporting. Unlike other vendors that are new to developing multifacility capability, Picis has continually developed and enhanced these features in products throughout their lifecycles.