KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 5, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner, a global leader in health care technology, and the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) announced the integration of SHM's Project BOOST™ toolkit into Cerner's Readmission Prevention Solution, available within the Cerner Millennium® electronic health record (EHR).

The integration of Project BOOST into Cerner Millennium provides clinicians with a comprehensive intervention strategy to optimize the patient discharge process. Developed by a panel of expert clinicians, Project BOOST content embedded into clinical workflows includes:

  • Automated early identification of specific readmission risk factors and corresponding interventions
  • General Assessment of Preparedness checklist to help identify patient concerns about their readiness to leave the hospital
  • Simplified patient-centered discharge instructions to help safely transition a patient home
  • Teach Back education process and documentation to help patients comprehend pertinent information related to their hospitalization and transition

"As part of Cerner's journey to advance our population health solutions, we originally collaborated with Advocate Health Care to innovate and develop the readmission prediction model powering Cerner's Readmission Prevention Solution. We are excited that this journey continues with the integration of SHM's award-winning Project BOOST content," said Bharat Sutariya, MD, FACEP, vice president and chief medical officer of Population Health, Cerner. "The enhanced readmission solution provides our clients with access to nationally recognized content and an industry-leading predictive model to help identify and manage patients that are at risk for readmissions."

Project BOOST is an award-winning national initiative designed to improve the care of patients and reduce risks for medical complications as they transition from hospital to home. Announced in August 2013, Cerner and SHM collaborated to create a robust paperless platform designed to help health care providers reduce 30-day readmission rates, improve clinical workflow and improve patient satisfaction while cultivating the flow of information from hospitals to outside care providers.

"Cerner and SHM have added intelligence to the readmission solution to enhance the clinical workflow and encourage patient-centered care," said Mark V. Williams, MD, MHM, principal investigator, Project BOOST. "What used to be a paper checklist process is now available to clinicians in their everyday workflow within the Cerner Millennium. The collaboration represents another step toward our goal to improve care for hospitalized patients."

Northern Arizona Healthcare, the first Cerner client to pilot Project BOOST-enabled Millennium in July 2014, realized a reduction of all-cause readmissions by more than 45 percent. Northern Arizona Healthcare will present its experience and success with the BOOST-enabled EHR at Cerner's Health Conference in October.

"The automation of Project BOOST workflow is saving our clinicians an average of one hour per patient," said Tiffany Ferguson, LMSW, ACM, social work manager, Northern Arizona Healthcare. "This allows our clinicians to reach more patients and spend more time at the bedside, resulting in better patient care and outcomes."

Cerner clients will also have access to a step-by-step instruction and project management implementation guide, the BOOST Online Community to learn from and collaborate with other sites, and the BOOST Data Center that allows users to store and benchmark data against control units and other providers. Provider sites can also elect to join the Project BOOST Mentored Implementation Program, which includes in-person training and a year of expert mentoring and coaching. Project BOOST Mentored Implementation Program is implemented in more than 200 hospitals.

About Cerner

Cerner's health information technologies connect people, information and systems at more than 18,000 facilities worldwide. Recognized for innovation, Cerner solutions assist clinicians in making care decisions and enable organizations to manage the health of populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help health care organizations manage revenue, as well as a wide range of services to support clients' clinical, financial and operational needs. Cerner's mission is to contribute to the systemic improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. On February 2, 2015, Cerner Corporation acquired substantially all of the assets, and assumed certain liabilities, of the Siemens Health Services business from Siemens AG. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, visit cerner.com, read our blog at cerner.com/blog, connect with us on Twitter at twitter.com/cerner and on Facebook at facebook.com/cerner.

Certain trademarks, service marks and logos set forth herein are property of Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other non-Cerner marks are the property of their respective owners.

About SHM

Representing the fastest growing specialty in modern healthcare, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) is the leading medical society for more than 44,000 hospitalists and their patients. SHM is dedicated to promoting the highest quality care for all hospitalized patients and overall excellence in the practice of hospital medicine through quality improvement, education, advocacy and research. Over the past decade, studies have shown that hospitalists can contribute to decreased patient lengths of stay, reductions in hospital costs and readmission rates, and increased patient satisfaction.

SHM's Center for Hospital Innovation and Improvement is nationally recognized for improving care delivery to hospitalized patients and offers a wide array of quality improvement toolkits and resources for providers. Free online tools and information are available at www.hospitalmedicine.org/qi.

For more information about SHM and hospital medicine, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org and follow SHM on Twitter at @SHMLive. Any hospital, regardless of its EHR, can join SHM's Project BOOST. For more information visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/boost.

CONTACT: Angela Vogen
         Cerner
         angela.vogen@cerner.com
         @Cerner
         
         Brendon Shank
         Society of Hospital Medicine
         bshank@hospitalmedicine.org
         @BrendonAtSHM

Cerner logo