Introduction

Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) of Houston, Texas, was selected as the winner of the second Health Devices Achievement Award, presented in June 2007, for demonstrating how the teamwork approach to integrating technology and asset management can lead to better patient care, in addition to lowering costs and improving communication.

The Health Devices Achievement Award recognizes outstanding initiatives undertaken by member healthcare institutions to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.

ECRI Institute congratulates the applicants: Yadin David EdD, Melita Howell, and Patti Rogers.

Read about the projects of other finalists for our annual award in The Health Devices Achievement Award: Recognizing Exceptional Health Technology Management. 

Discussion

Prepared by a multidisciplinary taskforce (biomedical engineering, nursing, information technology), TCH's submission describes the organization's Integrated Platform for Life Safety and Tracking initiative, in which three individual projects involving the hospital's nurse call and asset tracking systems were consolidated into one. This consolidation allowed TCH to leverage the investment entailed by the separate projects and combine the required workforces.

The result of the TCH effort is a common platform combining nurse call functions with the electronic tracking of equipment and staff. The platform is designed to improve communication with caregivers, allow more efficient staff and equipment utilization, and foster more efficient responses to equipment recalls. Future efforts will expand the use of the platform to integrate other systems, including patient monitoring.

"We want to honor our member hospitals' commitment to technology management by achieving high standards of safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness in healthcare," says James P. Keller, Jr., ECRI Institute's vice president for health technology evaluation and safety. "This project was a great example of multiple teams coming together to collaborate on a large scale and a forward-looking initiative. The collaboration set a great example for other institutions as they begin to tackle device interoperability and the convergence of medical devices and information technology."

Yadin David, director of TCH's biomedical engineering department, stated, "We are honored to be selected by such an esteemed institute. This recognition will enhance our ability to share our forward-looking integrated patient-care technology strategy with other healthcare organizations and manufacturers, and ultimately means that we will help improve patient care standards everywhere."