McLaren Northern Michigan Wins Award for Integration of Patient-Care Technologies

ECRI named McLaren Northern Michigan the winner of its 16th-annual Health Technology Excellence Award for its innovative integration of patient-care technologies into new hospital construction. McLaren facilitated collaboration among various technology vendors to streamline the delivery of information to care providers and to make a better, more informed experience for patients through the optimized flow of clinical information.

ECRI presents its annual award to the member facility that has carried out the most exceptional initiative to improve patient safety, reduce costs or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.

The award-winning submission described the regional hospital’s expansion plan to build 200 private patient rooms, a range of clinical care areas, plus pharmacy and sterile processing services. More than new physical spaces, the addition was designed to build the safest and most advanced integrated patient experience.

This goal required the involvement of a wide range of vendors, including companies that provide high-quality solutions within specific areas of expertise, including:

• Nurse call
• Patient monitoring
• Staff communications
• Electronic medical record
• Real-time locating system
• Patient safety
• Virtual nursing
• Patient education
• Internet protocol television
• Patient interaction and entertainment

“We put considerable thought into which technologies would be used in those spaces, how those technologies would interact with one another and what implementation measures would be required to ensure that the technologies functioned well together,” said Rich Reamer, regional manager of clinical engineering at McLaren Health Care.

To succeed with its clinician/patient-centric vision, McLaren needed to select product solutions that used an open architecture, as well as vendors that would collaborate in connecting different systems. The initial meeting with vendors was a critical first step. Together, they developed an integrated system offering nine total systems working in either total integration, or in support of safety and quality outcomes for the hospital’s patients.

ECRI received award entries from hospitals in the United States, as well as internationally, including from Columbia, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Canada.

To learn more, visit ecri.org.