Michigan's Garden City Hospital Invests in Emergency Department Information System from Emergisoft to Enhance Procedures, Patient Care

Business Wire, Sept 27, 2004

GARDEN CITY, Mich. -- Detroit-Area Hospital Values Emergisoft's Complete Functionality and History of Seamless His Interfaces; EmergisoftED(TM) Supports Hospital's Goals of Using Technology to Make Workflow More Efficient, and Help Administrators Make Better-Informed Decisions

Michigan's Garden City Hospital has chosen Emergisoft to enhance the efficiency of its emergency department through the use of new patient tracking and medical documentation technologies that will create a completely electronic environment. The hospital has chosen EmergisoftED(TM), the leading Emergency Department Information System (EDIS), to further enhance the efficiency, quality and privacy of emergency medicine provided to patients in the Garden City community.

Hospitals across the country have increasingly recognized the emergency department as the "front door" to the healthcare system. For this reason administrators at facilities like Garden City Hospital have selected the Emergisoft system to automate the patient experience from the moment they arrive for care.

"At a minimum, the system frees nurses from tasks so they're more focused on patient care, and that's just one way an EDIS can help greatly improve patient care," said Debra Williams, RN, BSN, Director of Emergency Services for Garden City Hospital. "Being able to track patients from the front door through discharge or admitting is key, but with Emergisoft, we have far more capabilities than just tracking. I'm looking forward to having management reports at my fingertips so I no longer have to do those reports manually. It will be rewarding to have these capabilities."

Williams said other key decision-making factors included ease of interface with their Siemens/SMS hospital information system, comprehensive functionality, overall value, and the system's impact on clinical workflow. Williams added that Emergisoft's benefits came to life during her site visit to the Rudolph Giuliani Trauma Center at St. Vincent's Manhattan.

"Interface was a huge factor for Garden City because we wanted a system that was going to be user friendly for the nurses and the physicians, and I felt that if we had to constantly flip-flop between multiple systems, then that would defeat the purpose of an EDIS," Williams said. "The site visit to St. Vincent's clinched it for me. They were quite busy at the time, and to see how easily the nurses triaged patients, and hearing directly from nurses how much they like Emergisoft, I knew right then that Emergisoft was the right choice."

Garden City began researching EDIS vendors about two years ago, when Williams was named Director of Emergency Services. The vendor-selection process accelerated about six months ago, and when Emergisoft was compared head-to-head against other vendors, the overall value of EmergisoftED was obvious to Williams and other administrators.

"There were some other vendors who offered what I'd call a complete EDIS system, but the pricing was just totally out of the ballpark for our facility," Williams said. "Vendors whose costs were closer to our budgets didn't have anywhere near the comprehensive functionality we would get from EmergisoftED, so for us choosing Emergisoft was a clear-cut decision."

Another key to the decision-making process was involving clinicians and the hospital's executives in the EDIS decision. Nurses, physicians, the hospital's IT Director, and the Chief Operating Officer, were among those to give direct input to the EDIS selection.

"The clinical staff was involved from very early on in the process, and I think that's important so that we can all work on accepting change together," said Dr. Gary Pilchak, Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Garden City Hospital. "We saw what the Emergisoft system was all about and we were encouraged to ask questions. Having input early-on generated a high degree of understanding and excitement among the clinical staff because we all recognize that by improving our ED processes with the help of an EDIS, the end result is better emergency care for the Garden City community."

"Emergisoft is very excited about the new relationship with Debra Williams and everyone at Garden City Hospital. They visited personally with current EmergisoftED customers including nurses and physicians at St. Vincent's Rudolph Giuliani Trauma Center in lower Manhattan," said Emergisoft Chairman and CEO Ash R. Huzenlaub. "Site visits are the acid test for any technology vendor. Time and time again Emergisoft excels during site visits because clinicians and administrators can see first hand how well EmergisoftED works in the clinical environment. They see that the interface with the main HIS is smooth and effective, and that Emergisoft is a value-generating EDIS partner from installation, to go-live, and well beyond."

EmergisoftED includes 14 years of development and medical content input from the more than 1,700 emergency department physicians and nurses that utilize Emergisoft technologies.

Garden City Hospital is a 323-bed hospital serving the community of Garden City, and is located about 15 miles west of Detroit. The hospital treats an average of 42,000 patients in its Emergency Department each year.