Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Steven Spedale, MD FAAP from PediNotes:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for PediNotes?
A: PediNotes was created out of a need to provide neonatal caregivers the electronic tools needed to take care of sick infants. Current Electronic Medical Records (EMR) used by most hospitals lack the focus and detail required for delivering care to infants in the (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) NICU. There has not been any significant movement for the EMR companies to resolve this care. As a clinician, I grew impatient waiting for someone else to create the technology that augments the healthcare I provide. So I decided to create one that will benefit both doctors and hospitals.
Q: How exactly does it work?
A: PediNotes uses interoperability to capture information from multiple sources which are relevant to an infant’s care. This information includes maternal care during the pregnancy, bedside nursing care, laboratory data, radiology studies and pharmacy medications. This data is integrated into PediNotes and allows caregivers to focus more on patient care. The output of PediNotes patient documentation, including patient orders, are then integrated into the hospital’s EMR.
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Q: Can you give us insights into your features?
A: PediNotes is focused on seamless communication between all members of the care team. Because there are multiple providers in a NICU, documentation needs vary. PediNotes provides the means for all the providers to generate the documentation that best fits the type of care they provide. Subspecialty support in PediNotes includes, initial and subsequent consult documentation, ECHO reports, and retinal diagrams.
Real-time data retrieval is available in the PediNotes desktop application as well as via smart devices utilizing PediNotes Mobile. Both applications allow caregivers a mechanism to communicate to bedside providers remotely and efficiently. Caregivers receive labs results when immediately available, as well as notification of consultant visits. Providers can receive, review, and transmit information back to the bedside nursing and respiratory therapy staff from PediNotes or PediNotes Mobile. If a physician is engaged in an emergency situation and unable to acknowledge the critical lab result, PediNotes provides automated protocols to alert the bedside nurse immediately. This action allows them to take necessary action to avoid adverse outcomes.
PediNotes two-tier alert system notifies the bedside nurse the moment a medical provider submits a STAT order, via their smart device. They are instantly notified that an order on their patient has been placed. PediNotes will also display the order details.
Physician’s verbal orders can also be logged in to PediNotes by the nursing staff so these orders can be reviewed, accepted or declined by the doctor using electronic signature functions available on the ordering physician’s smart device. The order is then integrated into the hospital EMR like any other PediNotes CPOE order, significantly increasing the productivity of both the medical and nursing team, as well as improving patient safety and order accuracy.
The intuitive design of PediNotes minimizes “the number of clicks” needed to navigate through different areas like respiratory, orders or lab results. For example, the respiratory page in PediNotes tracks all of a baby’s respiratory changes and assisted ventilation, as well as the associated laboratory information (blood gases).
Based on its user-centered design, intuitive CPOE capabilities are present on this page. This functionality ensures clinicians have all the required information at their fingertips, which in turn aids them in delivering the necessary treatment. PediNotes captures any available electronic patient information and displays it in the logical repository for physicians to use and further integrates it into the hospital system. This significantly reduces the time providers spend on searching for information, enabling them to focus more on patient care. All the information is housed in a single repository which allows end-users to view other caregivers’ documentation with a single click.
Q: One of PediNotes™’ most critical features is data collection – why is it important?
A: The ability to take care of a critically ill baby requires that providers have up to date information to help formulate clinical decisions. But it is how this data is applied to the care of an infant that matters and just as importantly, how that data can be used to help other patients. For this to occur, data must be readily available to providers to review and analyze how their delivered care affects patients. With both in-program analytics (PediAnalytics) and our data warehouse utilizing Microsoft Power BI, providers can access their data on their own as needed. For those providers participating in other databases, PediNotes can export data electronically. Electronic data submission for the Vermont Oxford Network is included with each PediNotes installation.
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Q: What are the company’s plans and goals for the future?
A: We continue to expand interoperability capabilities, including data retrieval from more sources as well as adding additional data analytics visualizations such as dashboards for financials, nursing acuities, and clinical outcomes. Our innovation lab consists of daily meetings with the development team to review future developments and feedback from our beta testers on features, as well as address key issues they incur. By virtue of being a neonatologist and working in a NICU environment, I want all feedback, good or bad, from our end users and look for all possible ways to improve the care of patients.
Our mission is very simple. At the end of the day, we remember that PediNotes is helping someone provide care to a sick baby and, to us, that’s what really matters most.
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