The adoption of SCCM’s ICU Liberation Initiative has lowered the chances of hospital death within seven days by 68 percent and decreased ICU readmissions by roughly 50 percent.
Best practices from The Society of Critical Care Medicine’s (SCCM) Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Liberation Initiative are now available on Epic and Cerner EHR platforms.
The initiative aims to alleviate patient pain, delirium, and other issues that transpire during ICU stays.
Experts say the adoption of the ICU Liberation Initiative decreases the likelihood of hospital death within seven days by 68 percent. The best practices will also spark a 48 percent decrease in both nursing home and rehab facility discharges.
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“The adoption of the ICU Liberation Bundle in EHR systems is a game-changer for improving the care of ICU patients,” said Patricia J. Posa, RN, quality and safety program manager at the University of Michigan. “Following the evidence-based guidelines featured in the bundle has proven to reduce the likelihood of hospital death within seven days and cut readmissions in half, along with other improved patient outcomes.”
“The challenge in ensuring the guidelines are adopted at all hospitals has been getting them in front of clinicians during the course of care,” continued Posa, who is also a leader in SCCM’s ICU Liberation Initiative. “Inclusion of the bundle in an EHR is one of the most impactful ways to ensure they are implemented.”
The ICU Liberation Bundle is a set of clinical based interviews that stems from the ICE Liberation Initiative. Studies have shown that the bundle improves ICU team communication by using a holistic approach.
With data available from over 20,000 patients, research shows the bundle does not just decrease hospital death within seven days and reduces nursing home and rehab facility discharges by 40 percent. It also decreases ICU readmissions by roughly 50 percent, lessens delirium and coma days by 25 to 50 percent, and diminishes physical restraint use by 60 percent.
Epic and Cerner are the first EHR platforms to implement the bundle into their software.
For Epic users, the elements can be shared through the Epic Foundation System, which is based on best practices from across the Epic community, the company said.
“The evidence behind ICU Liberation demonstrates that the bundle saves lives, reduces harmful effects of an ICU stay, and improves the quality of patient’s lives post-ICU,” said Jeff Wolanin, Epic Foundation System lead. “We are grateful for the opportunity to design and develop the ICU Liberation Bundle in Epic with a multi-disciplinary group of experts from SCCM.”
Existing Epic customers can easily adopt the ICU Liberation Bundle into their old system. Meanwhile, new Epic users will have the bundle already implemented into their platform. A training system, along with workflow tips will soon be released.
“We look forward to continuing to work with SCCM to make it as easy as possible for all Epic community members to incorporate and operationalize these evidence-based practices,” Wolanin concluded.
ICU Liberation Bundle features are now available to new and existing Cerner users and Cerner’s Critical Care Community were early users on the bundle.
“It is exciting when evidence-based practices developed to improve patient outcomes, such as content in the ICU Liberation Bundle, are easily represented in EHR technology,” said Ashleigh George, RN-BC, vice president of clinical product management at Cerner. “Incorporating this content into Cerner workflows is a natural progression for clients using our Critical Care solutions”
“Cerner is proud to work with Society of Critical Care Medicine thought leaders to integrate this tool into our EHR,” George concluded.
Source: EHR Intelligence