MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Health division of Wolters Kluwer, a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry, has partnered with Halifax Health to improve sepsis outcomes by integrating POC Advisor™ into clinical workflows. A cloud-based, integrated decision support platform, POC Advisor detects and electronically alerts clinicians to potentially septic patients, combining mobile alerts and patient-specific advice with change management and standardized sepsis protocols to accelerate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming and often fatal immune response to infection. In the U.S., it is the deadliest condition treated in hospital critical care units, claiming approximately 258,000 lives annually, and is the most expensive to treat, costing hospitals an estimated $20 billion every year.
Using automated, real-time surveillance, POC Advisor aggregates, normalizes and analyzes patient data from disparate clinical systems to deliver timely and accurate sepsis alerts and advice. Hundreds of rules built into the platform account for possible comorbidities and medication abnormalities, ensuring that alerts are both highly sensitive and specific. In a 2014 pilot study at Huntsville Hospital, a 941-bed facility in Alabama, integration of POC Advisor resulted in a 53% reduction in sepsis mortality and a 30% drop in sepsis-related 30-day readmissions.
“Administering early treatment is imperative to surviving sepsis; however, a number of other conditions present with similar symptoms, which makes diagnosis at the onset challenging,” said Zabrina Evens, M.D., Sepsis BPCI Medical Director for Halifax Health. “For example, in an emergency environment, especially one with a patient population as large as ours, it’s extremely difficult for clinicians to scrutinize the data necessary for early identification for every patient. Partnering with Wolters Kluwer provides our staff with the best opportunity to improve sepsis care and save patients’ lives.”
The partnership also marks the inaugural deployment of POC Advisor into the emergency department (ED). It is an area of critical importance for Halifax Health, Florida’s largest ED, with more than 116,000 emergency visits annually.
East Central Florida’s largest healthcare provider, the Halifax Health system comprises a 678-bed tertiary and community hospital and more than 500 physicians representing 54 medical specialties. It is consistently ranked in the top 5% of all hospitals in the nation for clinical outcomes for trauma, pediatric emergency, cardiology, orthopedics, neurosciences, oncology, neonatal and pediatric intensive care.
“The challenges of improving sepsis care are not isolated to any one facility. By integrating POC Advisor with the EHR and enabling real-time analysis of patient data, we are overcoming those challenges by delivering front-line clinicians the patient-specific alerts and evidence-based advice they need to rapidly diagnose and treat sepsis, saving lives without disrupting workflows,” said David A. Del Toro, President & CEO of Clinical Software Solutions at Wolters Kluwer. “Halifax Health is nationally recognized for its commitment to arming its clinicians with the technologies and tools they need to provide optimal care. Thus, in the struggle to reduce sepsis mortality, POC Advisor was the logical solution of choice.”
About Wolters Kluwer
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Wolters Kluwer reported 2014 annual revenues of €3.7 billion. The group serves customers in over 170 countries, and employs over 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY).
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