Q-Tel saves us time
Improving quality and efficiency of care
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center in Missoula, Montana, is improving efficiency, cutting down on paperwork, and delivering better care for cardiac rehab patients with the Quinton Q-Tel RMS 3.0 from Cardiac Science. Q-Tel is a comprehensive cardiac monitoring and data management system designed to integrate with electronic medical record (EMR) and hospital information systems (HIS)–saving time and saving lives.
St. Patrick Hospital is a major healthcare hub for western Montana and central Idaho, with a 237-bed facility servicing a 17-county area. In 1995, the hospital and The University of Montana formed The International Heart Institute of Montana, where the treatment of heart disease is taught, studied, and researched by the foremost in the field. Ranked by Thomson Reuters as one of the 100 Top Hospitals for Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success in five of the last eight years, St. Patrick Hospital is recognized as a leader in cardiac care.
Deploying Q-Tel
In October 2007, St. Patrick deployed the Q-Tel RMS as part of an initiative to further improve patient care through more effective data monitoring and management. The new Q-Tel system has enabled the hospital to transition from handwritten reports to a system where patient information is electronically entered, saved, and shared.
The result: life-threatening trends are more easily spotted and life-saving treatments are more effectively delivered. “Previously we had to enter each patient’s demographics manually on each report, which was tedious and time consuming,” explained Susi Mathis, Manager, Cardiac Rehabilitation.
“Now we can import this data from the HIS every morning with a touch of a button, and each report fills in automatically.”
The Q-Tel system’s Q-Exchange technology searches for available patient demographic information to import from the hospitals HIS system. It then automatically imports up to 41 fields of data in the proper formats. Names, addresses, insurance carrier info, physician notes, account numbers – it’s all easily imported, saving a significant amount of time and better facilitating automated billing as well.
“This allows us to efficiently store information and continue to move toward our goal of a more paperless model,” emphasized Mathis. Conversely, the Q-Tel system enables staff to export reports from one or more rehab sessions involving one or more patients. Staff can instantly communicate pertinent information such as exercise modalities, times, METs, heart rates, observations, and other session parameters—up to 100 fields of data—directly to the hospital’s HIS/EMR.
Then staff can use the reporting system’s built-in charting functions to quickly review a patient’s rehab performance, from a single session or over time, with just a click. Progress reports are created in a familiar Microsoft Excel file and can be saved and printed as PDF copies for easy reference.
“This gives doctors the ability to compare different types of information in more useful ways because it’s all in one place,” Mathis explained. “For instance, we had a patient who developed an arrhythmia over the course of his cardiac rehabilitation sessions. With the Q-Tel system, the doctor could review the entire set of rhythm strips and observe trends between sessions. Before we had Q-Tel, we couldn’t store and review previous rhythm strips—we could only observe the data in real time—so this would’ve been much more difficult to catch.”
The doctor detected increases in the arrhythmia, and armed with the Q-Tel reports, presented evidence to authorize lengthening the rehabilitation. The medical necessity was clearly evident in the data, and the patient’s rehabilitation was prolonged.
Simpler and better
“Q-Tel saves us time,” said Mathis. “We’re killing fewer trees and working more efficiently. From a manager’s standpoint it has increased productivity. We actually reduced the time it takes to do paperwork. We can just type it in and hit print,” said Mathis.
“It helps with our billing list, where we used to keep a hand written attendance record. With a discharge summary, for instance, we turn around the summary in a week - versus a few weeks! That’s big. It means the doctor can see the results before the next patient visit and can follow up.” “We look forward to getting RMS 3.1, so we can continue to streamline our processes and always provide the very best possible care for our cardiac rehab patients,” said Mathis.
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center in Missoula, Montana, is improving efficiency, cutting down on paperwork, and delivering better care for cardiac rehab patients with the Quinton Q-Tel RMS 3.0 from Cardiac Science. Q-Tel is a comprehensive cardiac monitoring and data management system designed to integrate with electronic medical record (EMR) and hospital information systems (HIS)–saving time and saving lives.
St. Patrick Hospital is a major healthcare hub for western Montana and central Idaho, with a 237-bed facility servicing a 17-county area. In 1995, the hospital and The University of Montana formed The International Heart Institute of Montana, where the treatment of heart disease is taught, studied, and researched by the foremost in the field. Ranked by Thomson Reuters as one of the 100 Top Hospitals for Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success in five of the last eight years, St. Patrick Hospital is recognized as a leader in cardiac care.
Deploying Q-Tel
In October 2007, St. Patrick deployed the Q-Tel RMS as part of an initiative to further improve patient care through more effective data monitoring and management. The new Q-Tel system has enabled the hospital to transition from handwritten reports to a system where patient information is electronically entered, saved, and shared.
The result: life-threatening trends are more easily spotted and life-saving treatments are more effectively delivered. “Previously we had to enter each patient’s demographics manually on each report, which was tedious and time consuming,” explained Susi Mathis, Manager, Cardiac Rehabilitation.
“Now we can import this data from the HIS every morning with a touch of a button, and each report fills in automatically.”
The Q-Tel system’s Q-Exchange technology searches for available patient demographic information to import from the hospitals HIS system. It then automatically imports up to 41 fields of data in the proper formats. Names, addresses, insurance carrier info, physician notes, account numbers – it’s all easily imported, saving a significant amount of time and better facilitating automated billing as well.
“This allows us to efficiently store information and continue to move toward our goal of a more paperless model,” emphasized Mathis. Conversely, the Q-Tel system enables staff to export reports from one or more rehab sessions involving one or more patients. Staff can instantly communicate pertinent information such as exercise modalities, times, METs, heart rates, observations, and other session parameters—up to 100 fields of data—directly to the hospital’s HIS/EMR.
Then staff can use the reporting system’s built-in charting functions to quickly review a patient’s rehab performance, from a single session or over time, with just a click. Progress reports are created in a familiar Microsoft Excel file and can be saved and printed as PDF copies for easy reference.
“This gives doctors the ability to compare different types of information in more useful ways because it’s all in one place,” Mathis explained. “For instance, we had a patient who developed an arrhythmia over the course of his cardiac rehabilitation sessions. With the Q-Tel system, the doctor could review the entire set of rhythm strips and observe trends between sessions. Before we had Q-Tel, we couldn’t store and review previous rhythm strips—we could only observe the data in real time—so this would’ve been much more difficult to catch.”
The doctor detected increases in the arrhythmia, and armed with the Q-Tel reports, presented evidence to authorize lengthening the rehabilitation. The medical necessity was clearly evident in the data, and the patient’s rehabilitation was prolonged.
Simpler and better
“Q-Tel saves us time,” said Mathis. “We’re killing fewer trees and working more efficiently. From a manager’s standpoint it has increased productivity. We actually reduced the time it takes to do paperwork. We can just type it in and hit print,” said Mathis.
“It helps with our billing list, where we used to keep a hand written attendance record. With a discharge summary, for instance, we turn around the summary in a week - versus a few weeks! That’s big. It means the doctor can see the results before the next patient visit and can follow up.” “We look forward to getting RMS 3.1, so we can continue to streamline our processes and always provide the very best possible care for our cardiac rehab patients,” said Mathis.
Susi Mathis, Manager, Cardiac Rehabilitation
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center
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