Rockford Health System in Rockford, Illinois is using the Health Level 7 data exchange standard to see both the real-time fetal monitoring strip and the patient’s electronic record on the same computer screen.

In the past, clinicians had a computer-based patient record in one location and a fetal monitor elsewhere. Using the HL7-based GE Healthcare Centricity Perinatal Connect technology enables Rockford to combine and save documentation from both the EHR and the perinatal systems into its Epic patient record.

The most important benefit of the vendor interoperability is increased patient safety, because nurses now can view fetal strips as part of the overall medical record, said Angie Asche-Willoughby, RN, Centricity perinatal system manager at Rockford Health System.

[Also: HL7 and ONC launch challenge seeking C-CDA rendering tools for clinicians]

“While admitting a patient in the computer system, the fetal monitor is on the other side of the bed; but now, I can visualize the fetal strip on my screen as I am doing a patient assessment, so if a baby is having any sort of distress on their monitor, I literally see it,” Asche-Willoughby said. “But the integration also decreases my time working with technology and charting, and thus increases the time I can spend with my patient. It’s so seamless because anything you document goes into Epic."

And that means nurses being able to see both the real-time fetal monitoring strip and the patient’s electronic record on the same computer screen, as opposed to having a computer-based patient record in one location and a fetal monitor elsewhere. Further, the HL7-based Connect technology enables the organization to combine and save documentation from both the EHR and the perinatal systems into the Epic patient record.

The No. 1 benefit of the vendor interoperability is increased patient safety, because nurses now can view fetal strips as part of the overall medical record, said Angie Asche-Willoughby, RN, Centricity perinatal system manager at Rockford Health System.

“While admitting a patient in the computer system, the fetal monitor is on the other side of the bed; but now, I can visualize the fetal strip on my screen as I am doing a patient assessment, so if a baby is having any sort of distress on their monitor, I literally see it,” Asche-Willoughby said. “But the integration also decreases my time working with technology and charting, and thus increases the time I can spend with my patient. It’s so seamless because anything you document goes into Epic.”

In addition to reducing the anxiety for nurses who no longer have to worry about what is going on between two different screens, the interoperability actually can reduce the anxiety of mothers during childbirth, Asche-Willoughby said.

“This set-up gives a nurse more time with her patient, so the patient isn’t thinking that all the nurse is doing is computer work,” she explained. “It provides a patient with a greater sense of comfort because a nurse is not as worried about her documentation. As a nurse, you don’t want a patient feeling like the only thing a nurse is doing is working on a computer; you want your patient to know you are taking care of her.”

The GE Healthcare Centricity Perinatal Connect systems integration module uses the HL7 2.x protocol, with ORU-type message specification exchanges. It can translate between HL7 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, back and forth. And it can work with any EHR system, GE Healthcare said.

GE Healthcare and Rockford Health System declined to reveal the cost of the interoperability module. However, the vendor said a provider organization can measure return on investment through increased productivity, among other improvements.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT