Guest Spot: Surviving the Data Jungle--A Team Approach for Beginners Using MEDITECH's Data Repository

By: Pat Korolog-Mulburger, RN & Suzanne Catalforno, RPh, Kalispell Regional Medical Center

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Anyone who attends a MUSE Conference knows just how much valuable information is available through the various workshops, peer group sessions, and presentations offered by different organizations and individuals. The following is a synopsis of one such presentation delivered by Pat Korolog-Mulberger and Suzanne Catalforno at the 2009 International MUSE Conference which was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 26th to 29th.

SYNOPSIS OF PRESENTATION:

This presentation addresses healthcare challenges brought about by needs for immediate data extracts to make good business decisions in healthcare. At Kalispell Regional Medical Center, our IT staff had difficulty keeping up with NPR report requests. We also recognized that our end-users may have an idea of what they wanted on an NPR report initially, but seeing that data would trigger needs for more data. In the summer of 2008, we began a search for a different reporting tool and after selecting Dimensional Insight's DIVER software, we developed a different approach to accomplish our reporting needs. We now utilize staff from all disciplines to build report models that can be used to aggregate data as well as to drill down into the data to find the meaningful details. Those familiar with their areas using MEDITECH and Medhost EDIS software are working together with IT to build robust models that achieve their reporting needs. The presentation reviews our approach to have various departments come onto the model-building team to build a committed ownership into the process as well as to expedite data extraction. We are now working on adding KRONOS HR and Timekeeper as well as Midas, Comp Data and eClinicalWorks to the models we have already built.

>>>Click here to download the PowerPoint Presentation<<<

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PRESENTERS:

Pat Korolog-Mulberger, RN, BSN - Applications Specialist

Pat worked as a staff nurse and an Assistant Head Nurse for 20 years prior to leading the Meditech HCIS build in a rural facility in 1995. She became a Meditech consultant in 1998 and led multiple Client Server implementations. Pat came to Kalispell Regional Medical Center as an Applications Specialist in 2001 and is now the Clinical Informatics Nurse. She has published several articles on clinical implementations and has presented six times at the International MUSE convention. She is an intermediate NPR Report Writer and is also versed in Crystal Report Writing. Buried with requests for NPR reports Pat searched for a new solution. She found DIVER at a MUSE convention, pitched it to her facility and was the lead in the DIVER project implementation.

Suzanne Catalfomo, RPh - Pharmacy Informatics Specialist

Suzanne presents her experience of the transition from building NPR reports to building some dynamic models in the DIVER application. Suzanne has been the Pharmacy Informatics Specialist at Kalispell Regional Medical Center for the past 4 years and is on the DIVER core team.