Regions Hospital Uses EMRs To Improve Safety, Reduce Costs
By Wendy Grafius, contributing writer
A tool built into the electronic medical record provides criteria to physicians at the point of order
Regions Hospital, of St. Paul, MN, has partnered with the American Red Cross to develop a decision-support tool for its EMR which is designed to improve the proper use of red blood cells, based on the latest evidence-based clinical guidelines. Implemented in 2011 at Regions, the blood-saving technology has reduced blood transfusions by an average of 94 units per month, or 14 percent.
One of six hospitals operated by Bloomington, MN, -based HealthPartners, the nation’s largest consumer governed non-profit healthcare organization, Regions is a 454-bed facility in St. Paul, MN. A Level I Trauma Center for adults and children, the hospital offers specialty care in trauma, burn, emergency, heart, orthopedics, neuroscience, oncology, and mental health. Regions was named among the nation’s top hospitals by The Leapfrog Group in 2012 and one of health care’s “Most Wired” by Hospital and Health Networks magazine. A top education and research hospital, more than 500 resident physicians train each year, and an average of 200 research projects are ongoing at any time.
While blood transfusions save lives, the American Medical Association and the Joint Commission reported this year that blood transfusions are one of five commonly used but not always necessary medical treatments. Cited as an often overused intervention, transfusions can suppress immunity and increase complications in patients. Regions’ decision-support tool alerts physicians of stable patient hemoglobin levels above 7 g/dl; levels less than that, called the hemoglobin trigger, are a reduced point at which transfusions are initiated, and at cautious levels of generally one unit at a time. “We are successfully changing the thinking behind transfusions,” said Amar Subramanian, M.D., a HealthPartners informatics pathologist at Regions Hospital. “A blood transfusion is like a liquid transplant, and even under ideal conditions, it’s not as good as someone’s own blood.”
The nation’s largest blood collection organization, the American Red Cross supplies more than 40 percent of the blood and blood products used in the U.S. Each year roughly 4 million blood donors donate approximately 6.5 million units of blood to the Red Cross, which translates to 9.5 million blood products and 6 million units of red blood cells distributed each year to hospitals and transfusion centers. More than 802,000 units of blood and $165 million in costs could be saved if all hospitals adopted evidence-based best practices for blood use, according to a 2012 analysis of blood use in 464 hospitals.
“We are grateful for the partnership with Regions to help improve patient outcomes and reduce costs with better blood utilization management,” said David Mair, chief medical director, Mid-America Division of the American Red Cross. “The Red Cross will continue to work with Regions to provide education and strategize on implementing good blood management utilization programs.”
SOURCE: HealthPartners