Nursing Operational Innovations

At Nicklaus Children's Health System, we embrace innovation by deploying state-of-the-art technology throughout the hospital to improve patient safety and the patient experience, as well as to make our operational processes more efficient. Transforming pediatrics through innovation takes a village, and we are proud to work with leading technology companies, community programs, schools, policy-makers and other organizations for the betterment of our patients and their families.

Bar Code Technology

In 2002, Nicklaus Children's became the first pediatric hospital in the nation to introduce medication bar-code technology - the most sophisticated technology available for medication administration control.

Here's how it works:

  1. Upon inpatient admission, patients receive a bar-code wristband. All medications from the pharmacy also have a specific bar-code. 
  2. Upon receipt of a medication order, the pharmacist reviews the order on the computer. The medication to be given is displayed on the nurse's computer.
  3. The nurse verifies the order for accuracy and scans the patient's wristband to verify the information. 
  4. The nurse then scans medication to be administered with the bar-code scanner. The computer checks it for accuracy and the nurse then administers the medication after verifying the match. 

Electronic Health Record

In 1997, Nicklaus Children's began using a computerized documentation system. We use the computerized system to document the care provided by the healthcare staff in all our patient care areas. The system contains the patient history, flow sheets and progress notes for all disciplines to document their assessments, observations, education, and interventions.

The computerized system is located at the nursing stations and on mobile workstations, workstations on wheels (WOWs), which can be taken to the patient's bedside. Throughout the health system, the system is available to other healthcare providers that have access to view patient information.

On April 17, 2012, Nicklaus Children's Health System successfully transitioned to an electronic health record system that provided significant enhancements for patients and caregivers alike. Internally known as PEDS (Pediatric Electronic Data System), this state-of-the-art program captures all data related to patient care from throughout the multi-facility pediatric healthcare system, including information from radiology, the laboratory, pharmacy, inpatient care, outpatient care, rehabilitation, and urgent and emergency care all in one comprehensive system.

PEDS could not have been developed without the involvement and collaboration of nurses across all levels. Known as subject matter experts, or "SMEs", nurses were selected from units throughout Nicklaus Children's Health System to provide input into the development of the PEDS clinical documentation system. This process took eighteen months to bring Nicklaus Children's Health System to the final "launch" date, and included process mapping, product testing, end-user education, and support during go-live.

EMR Application Suite

The CareAware® suite of applications enables interoperability between medical devices, healthcare applications and the EHR by enabling seamless connectivity among medical devices, nurse call systems, location-based technologies, and other network-connected systems. CareAware® is helping Nicklaus Children's Health System improve operational efficiencies, minimize errors, and reduce costs.

Digital White Board

Cerner's digital unit whiteboard, CareAware® CareView was designed to improve communication and to help eliminate documentation redundancies that often occur when using a handwritten whiteboard.

Capacity Management Bed Tracking and Patient Flow System

The ability to transfer patients from one bed to another seems like a simple task; however, communication barriers between units, transport teams, and environmental services can make this a complex undertaking.

Ultimately, these breaks in processes can extend patient wait times and slow bed turnover. CareAware® Capacity Management helps improve patient throughput by optimizing bed management and automating job assignments for environmental services and patient transportation. Operationally, leaders can view the entire organization's throughput endeavors under this single application.

Smart Phone Communication Platform

CareAware® Connect is a clinical mobility solution designed for smartphones, which helps improve efficiency by completing multiple workflows and coordinating communications using one device. The application allows real-time alerts and notification to be routed to the right user at the right time.

Scheduling and Acuity Systems for Safe Staffing

Clairvia® leverages outcomes, interventions, and observations to create a custom workload calculation based on each patient's clinical condition. By continuously comparing the incoming projected admission, discharge, transfer, and workload demand for patients with existing schedules, managers are able to easily identify any pockets of over or understaffing and proactively adjust staffing needs.

Clairvia® helps Nicklaus Children's Health System appropriately plan for staffing needs and have those needs align to individual patient care coordinating the right patient with the right caregiver at the right time.

More Time at the Bedside

CareAware® VitalsLink® 

CareAware® VitalsLink® provides a streamlined, barcode-driven process on an integrated device for clinicians to chart vitals data directly into the EHR at the point of care. Receiving the correct vitals data in a timely manner is critical. The context these data points provide for the diagnosis and treatment during a hospital stay can improve overall patient health outcomes. 

CareAware® Seizure Alert

Each room in the Neurology and Neurosurgery Unit is equipped with a seizure alarm. When a patient is having a seizure, the family is instructed to press the seizure alarm to notify the staff. This alarm has a unique ringtone to alert the staff there is a seizure. The alarm sounds throughout the unit and to the nurses CareAware® phones. The Hill-Rom lights flash purple, indicating what room the seizure is occurring. 

Hillrom Nurse Call

The Hillrom Nurse Call/Light system is an enhanced clinical application used within the hospital to improve the patient experience and keep patients safe. Not only does Hillrom Nurse Call provide communication between patients and caregivers it also provides secure and reliable communication platform across the hospital.

This system integrates the use of the traditional nurse call system with the addition of easily visible notifications for each patient. With customizable and hospital standard notifications, health care workers can provide quality and safe care by automating the care environment. Nurse Call has been proven to reduce falls with injury by 67%, improve the patient experience score by 30%, and allow the staff to spend more time on direct patient care. 

Timeless Medical™ Women and Infants

Timeless manages, tracks & traces the entire preparation & feeding processes at Nicklaus Children's Hospital. It easily integrates with PEDS (our Pediatric Electronic Data System) to provide real-time updates, which saves time and reduces errors. The system also tracks the patient's breastmilk inventory and provides automatic text message notifications in both English and Spanish to mothers when more breastmilk is needed.