CAMBRIDGE, Mass, June 12, 2013 – As the nation’s healthcare providers observe National Time Out Day today, Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS) and LiveData, Inc. have combined their expertise in a new deployment of LiveData OR-Dashboard with Active Time Out, at the Miami VA Healthcare System. On June 3, 2013, the innovative system was deployed in all nine fully integrated surgical suites at the Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center building in Miami, providing the cornerstone for advances in both workflow efficiency and patient safety.
Sponsored by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses [AORN], The Joint Commission, and other organizations, National Time Out Day calls attention to the most essential way to adhere to the first principle of the Hippocratic Oath: do no harm. An annual awareness campaign, National Time Out Day reminds every member of the surgical team of the most critical pre-surgery steps to reduce surgical complications: validating patient, procedure, and site. This verification process, called Time Out, is part of the Universal Protocol established in 2004 by The Joint Commission, and is the first premise of safe surgery.
DSS develops and supplies integrated enhancements to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VistA system, and specializes in healthcare IT solutions that improve quality and productivity. The Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) provides an integrated inpatient and outpatient electronic health record for VA patients, and administrative tools to help the VA deliver the best quality medical care to Veterans.
LiveData OR-Dashboard presents essential information about the patient and surgical case to the entire OR team on a large display, in real-time. Vendor neutral and interoperable with any EHR system, OR-Dashboard integrates data from patient records, administrative systems, physiological monitors, and medical devices into an automated workflow. With Active Time Out, surgical time outs are integrated into the workflow and automatically documented, supporting hospital quality initiatives like Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) and VA Surgery Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP).
LiveData has teamed with DSS to fully integrate OR-Dashboard with VistA, thereby adding a new operating room technology that fosters patient safety and improves OR workflow.
"The country has always valued the contributions of its service members. There is no better way to show its commitment than to pursue continued excellence in the VHA health care system," said Mark Byers, President and CEO of DSS, Inc. "National Time Out Day is an appropriate setting to acknowledge OR-Dashboard as an important patient safety addition to the VistA environment."
With the DSS Integration Framework and VistA integration, the use of Active Time Out helps the VA achieve the mandate of the VA National Center for Patient Safety Directive 2010-023: Ensuring Correct Surgery, Byers added.
"Through its advocacy and development of VistA integrated solutions, DSS is a perfect match to deliver LiveData patient safety solutions to Veterans in the most efficient and effective manner," said LiveData CEO Jeff Robbins. “Integrating details from the multidisciplinary Surgical Care Improvement Project, as well as the VA/Surgical Quality Improvement Program, into VistA is an essential part of the success of the VA deployment.”
Initiated as an annual awareness campaign by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) in 2004, National Time Out Day has been consistently supported by The Joint Commission, the World Health Organization, and the Council on Surgical and Perioperative Safety (CSPS) for its ability to increase awareness of safe practices that lead to optimal outcomes for patients undergoing surgery and other invasive procedures.
About DSS
DSS is a leading health information technology (HIT) software development and systems integration company. For more than 20 years, healthcare organizations have benefited from our technical and service VistA-integration expertise. DSS has extensive experience working with federal, private, and public healthcare facilities to modernize their legacy systems and to improve efficiencies for clinical and administrative users. DSS is a member of the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) organization. For more information about DSS,visit http://www.dssinc.com.
About LiveData
LiveData, Inc. (Twitter: @livedatadashbd) is a leading innovator in real-time data integration and display technology. The company’s patents-pending solutions gather data from any number of sources, coordinate it with team workflow, and present it as meaningful information on easy-to-read, graphic displays. Leading medical institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, have selected LiveData OR-Dashboard to improve patient safety, team communication, and perioperative efficiency. Founded in 1991, LiveData is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and serves customers in healthcare, electric power and utilities, and manufacturing industries, as well as state and local governments. For more information, visit www.livedata.com.
The following are trademarks of LiveData: LiveData, Active Time Out, and OR-Dashboard. All other marks are the property of their respective owners, and are used for identification purposes only.