Although New York's Jacobi Medical Center (JMC) is pouring millions of dollars into a high-tech patient information system that is saving the organization thousands of dollars a year, the marketing and PR departments are taking a "wait and see" approach, allowing the director of pharmacy to become the hospital's de facto communicator.
Since 1995, the center has been the country's beta site for an elaborate $32 million patient information system with robotic drug distribution technology that will be installed throughout the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.'s 11-hospital network over the next five years. Initially, the program was met with resistance by pharmacists, physicians, nurses and even PR staffers, according to Joseph Alongi, JMC's director of pharmacy, who was responsible for getting internal buy-in for the hospital.
"The PR staff in particular was concerned about the system being perceived as a gimmick by the public. I had to do several [internal] lectures to push this as a state-of-the-art tool that will greatly improve patient care and save the hospital money." The meetings highlighted to clinicians how the system virtually eliminates the tedious cart-filling tasks of a typical pharmacist and enables the hospital to re-deploy pharmacists into clinical, patient care roles.
Setting PR Priorities
But as a public hospital system, JMC has to be concerned about how such an extensive automation system will be perceived by the community, especially when there are major ER renovations needed, says Susan Muller, JMC's PR director. As a Level 1 trauma center, the PR department devotes much of its time to putting out ER-related media fires that involve high-profile murder and injury cases. (Most recently, the late Betty Shabazz was treated there for fatal burn injuries after her grandson set her apartment on fire.) Although the new system has not become a top communications priority yet, as it is installed throughout NYCHHC's network, the corporate agency will develop a PR campaign to promote the system-wide innovation, says Miller.
This hands-off PR approach is typical of many hospital communicators who have their plates full working on more pressing community-related image campaigns. In these situations, hospital PR pros often allow the manufacturers to initially promote these innovations. Case in point: Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Conn. generated media coverage on Discovery's "Beyond 2000" and CNN for its "Roscoe" and "Rosie" trackless robotic couriers that deliver food, medical and lab records and mail from one department to another. The PR was handled by HelpMate Robotics Inc. (Danbury, Conn.), manufacturers of the technology. (See HPRMN case study, May 15, 1997.)
For now, JMC is getting the word out about its aggressive move to automate through computer/robot-based technology via Per Se Technologies in Atlanta, which developed the patient information system, Ulticare.
Optimizing Patient Care
The system integrates patient information from doctors, nurses and pharmacists and creates centralized patient records. The most innovative component of the system is how the robot (developed by McKesson Automated Healthcare in Pittsburgh, Penn.) interfaces with the Ulticare system to store, retrieve and dispense patient medications, replacing the cart-filling task of a typical hospital pharmacy. The Ulticare system will be available by the middle of this year and will target large hospital systems (500+ beds) interested in integrating their patient information systems. Depending on the size and layout of the hospital, the system starts at $500,000 to install, according to Dr. Ralph Korpman, chief healthcare scientist at Per Se Technologies.
JMC is in a major restructuring mode to reduce cost is using the system to not only automate its pharmacy but also attract managed care contracts and boost quality and customer service.
Essentially replacing patient charts, the Ulticare system is being used by 2,000 clinicians at JMC who have access to "real time" patient information on lab tests, allergies and drug restrictions. It can automate 95% of unit-dose hospital medications and the robot can be programmed to process up to 850 types of drugs and 60,000 doses.
Soon after the Ulticare system was operational at JMC, four full-time pharmacists were let go, which didn't bode well for employee morale, but resulted in a $200,000 savings for the hospital. "I had to convince the staff that the robot wasn't there to replace jobs-we were already downsizing - but to make their jobs easier," says Alongi. (JMC, Susan Muller, 718/918-5000; Per Se Technologies, Dr. Ralph Korpman, 770/444-4000)