Humber River Health Launches World’s First Clinical Analytic Applications in Hospital Command Centre to Revolutionize the Patient Experience

Combining AI, Machine Learning and Professional Expertise to Help Deliver Better, Faster and Safer Patient Care

Toronto, September 26, 2019 – Today Humber River Health (HRH) launches the world’s first clinical analytic applications or ‘tiles’ inside of a hospital command centre, in partnership with GE Healthcare Partners (GEHC), to revolutionize the patient experience and bring a new standard of patient-centered quality healthcare to Ontario, and the world.

These new clinical applications or analytic ‘tiles’ are displayed on large-screen monitors in the Hospital’s Command Centre.  These ‘tiles’ integrate standardized early warning systems, predictive analytics, real-time information from multiple digital systems, and professional expertise to provide an ‘added layer of protection’ for patients with conditions that make them more vulnerable to risks of adverse events, or adverse outcomes.  Through this process, clinical staff can be alerted to a changing patient’s condition even sooner, so that they can intervene to keep that patient on track and advancing towards becoming healthy.

Experienced nurses observe alerts on the Command Centre tiles and support front-line clinicians so that doctors, nurses and other clinical staff can intervene earlier and spend more time at the bedside providing optimal care to patients.

It is a known concern that patients who visit hospitals can be at risk of adverse events. According to data from the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and Canadian Institute for Health Information, 1 in 18 hospital stays in Canada involved at least one harmful event. [1]  In 2014-2015, this data shows that 37% of hospital harm events were related to infections.[2]  According to research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), the costs of experiencing hospital harm amounted to more than $1 billion in Ontario in fiscal year 2015-16.[3]

“This evolution in our technology-rich Command Centre is an essential part of our journey to providing a model of excellence for patient-centered care with a focus on higher reliability healthcare.  Humber River Health is the first to build such analytics and deploy them alongside clearly defined procedures, with the hospital’s Command Centre as a back-stop.  We want what’s best for our patients and this just enhances our ability to revolutionize that experience and deliver even higher quality care,” says Barbara Collins, President and CEO of HRH.

The new Mother and Baby Care tile, for instance, flags in the HRH Command Centre when an expectant mother or newborn is at elevated risk.  The goal is to support patients in the Labour and Delivery Unit and Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and to reduce unpredicted rates of illness.  Along similar lines, the new Risk of Harm tile is designed to help reduce the likelihood of adverse events for patients at an elevated risk of harm, such as sepsis or deterioration.

HRH’s digital transformation began in 2005 with the planning of the hospital’s new location, which opened in October 2015 making HRH North America’s first fully digital hospital.  HRH launched the first generation of its Command Centre two years later, providing real-time insight on patient flow using capacity, demand and other operational data.  Since then, HRH has enhanced care delivery by reducing delays, predicting gridlocks and better matching resources to patient demand – all orchestrated by the Command Centre.

“Humber River Health is the innovation leader in GE’s global ecosystem of NASA-style clinical command centres. Generation 1 of the HRH Command Centre broke new ground. Generation 2 does it again,” says Jeff Terry, CEO of Clinical Command Centres for GE Healthcare. “We anticipate next-level results from this work, are committed to HRH’s success, and are delighted to innovate with them for years to come,” says Jeff Terry, CEO of Clinical Command Centres for GE Healthcare.

Since the launch of its Command Centre, HRH has unlocked inpatient capacity equivalent to 35 additional beds, eliminated hallway medicine and reduced Emergency Department wait times, despite experiencing 8% growth in ED volume during this same period.

The launch of these four new analytic tiles in the HRH Command Centre marks a major milestone in the hospital’s multi-generational roll-out. The next phase will introduce additional Command Centre functionality, with analytics designed to further integrate the hospital with the community it serves so that more patients can receive care at home.

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About Humber River Health

Humber River Health (HRH) is North America’s first digital hospital and one of Canada’s largest acute care hospitals.  Supported by cutting edge technology and a recognized globally for its leadership, excellence and innovation in patient care, HRH is fueled by a workforce committed to compassionate, quality and reliable healthcare that puts the patients, their families and their needs at the centre of all that they do.  Serving more than 850,000 people in northwest Greater Toronto Area, operating out of a 1.8 million square foot facility, it integrates lean and green design principles and the finest available medical and communications technology across all hospital systems, services and workflows.   HRH operates 656 acute inpatient beds, including 48 critical care beds, has 3,400 staff, approximately 600 physicians, and over 500 volunteers. The hospital has formal affiliations with the University of Toronto and Queen’s University Medical Schools.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare is the $19 billion healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE).  As a leading provider of medical imaging, monitoring, biomanufacturing, and cell and gene therapy technologies, GE Healthcare enables precision health in diagnostics, therapeutics and monitoring through intelligent devices, data analytics, applications and services.  With over 100 years of experience in the healthcare industry and more than 50,000 employees globally, the company helps improve outcomes more efficiently for patients, healthcare providers, researchers and life sciences companies around the world.  Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and The Pulse for latest news, or visit our website https://corporate.gehealthcare.com/ for more information.

 Footnotes

[1] Statistic is based on the year 2014-15.  Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canadian Patient Safety Institute. Measuring Patient Harm in Canadian Hospitals. With What can be done to improve patient safety? authored by Chan B, Cochrane D. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Lauren Tessier, Sara J.T. Guilcher, Yu Qing Bai, Ryan Ng and Walter P. Wodchis. CMAJ August 12, 2019 191 (32) E879-E885; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.181621