Natural Language Processing scours provider notes for earlier and more accurate sepsis detection.
Wolters Kluwer, Health today announced that Guthrie, a not-for-profit, integrated health care system in Pennsylvania and New York has selected POC Advisor™ to aid in rapid, accurate detection and treatment of sepsis at its four area hospitals. Beginning with Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital, a Regional Level II Trauma Center, POC Advisor will equip the 254-bed tertiary care hospital in northern Pennsylvania with expert solutions to accelerate sepsis care using evidence-based alerts for clinicians at the point of care.
“Combatting sepsis is an ever-present challenge. Based on feedback from our providers, Guthrie sought a sepsis detection solution with meaningful alerts that provided more accuracy and specificity than we could achieve with our electronic health record (EHR) alone,” said Terri Couts, RN MHA, Vice President, Epic Program Applications at Guthrie. “Using natural language processing (NLP), POC Advisor can help us maximize the value of our EHR investment by using both patient data and extensive clinician notes to trigger alerts accurately and earlier so our care team can effectively intervene to improve sepsis outcomes.”
The World Health Organization estimates sepsis globally affects over 30 million people annually, potentially leading to six million deaths. Mortality rates increase by six to eight percent for every hour of delayed treatment. Every hour matters and to manage sepsis hazards effectively, healthcare organizations need earlier detection and truly accurate alerting tools. Too many false-positive alerts can leave providers vulnerable to alert fatigue and missed alerts that are legitimate. In some cases, providers request to disable alert systems altogether because of frequent false-positive alerts.
How POC Advisor Works:
With POC Advisor, hospitals can improve sepsis alert accuracy to 99 percent sensitivity and 97 percent specificity. At Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital’s emergency department, POC Advisor will analyze patient data within the EHR and apply hundreds of different clinical scenarios to identify escalating conditions sooner in the course of care, ensuring a rapid response with sepsis treatment bundles.
By using artificial intelligence (AI), POC Advisor adds smarter, advanced sepsis detection into the clinical workflow. At Guthrie, where providers rely heavily on documenting patient conditions in text notes, natural language processing (NLP) scours clinical notes for critical information missing from EHR data that might indicate sepsis. For healthcare organizations, not only does clinical surveillance technology like POC Advisor integrated with EHRs improve outcomes, but it also lower costs. According to a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), POC Advisor demonstrated a reduction in mortality of sepsis patients by 53 percent, and a reduction in related 30-day readmissions by 31 percent.
“Decreasing readmission rates and length of stay are key areas hospitals are focused on to improve outcomes and financial performance. Guthrie’s focus to enhance patient care with earlier sepsis identification and treatment is a key initiative that can make a significant impact,” said Karen Kobelski, Vice President and General Manager for Clinical Surveillance, Compliance & Data Solutions at Wolters Kluwer, Health. “With POC Advisor, Guthrie can be confident clinicians are using AI-powered expert solutions coupled with the latest evidence-based treatments for sepsis, and in the future, for other time-sensitive conditions in the hospital.”
Supporting Guthrie’s multidisciplinary approach to care, POC Advisor joins several resources from Wolters Kluwer currently leveraged by Guthrie across the continuum of care: