Bryan Medical Center/Bryan Heart Hospital, located in Lincoln, Neb., serves patients from as far away as Arkansas and Wyoming. Named a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence, Bryan Heart has been recognized many times for the care it delivers. Highly skilled clinicians, state-of-the-art technology and an unwavering focus on quality form the foundation of the heart hospital’s success. This foundation enables Bryan Heart to consistently improve its outcomes.
To support outcomes improvement efforts, Bryan Heart recently implemented Lumedx’s Analytics software as part of its cardiovascular information system (CVIS).
D2B and Lowering Atrial Fib Rate With Analytics
At Bryan Heart, Cardiac Data Managers Linda Gardena, RN, and Susan Barnason, RN, manage the STS and ACC-NCDR registries as well as internal quality efforts, putting them at the center of data analysis and reporting.
“We’re always looking at our numbers and trying to improve here,” says Linda. “Door-to-balloon time is at the top of everyone’s agenda. It’s what we’re watching most closely for our cath PCIs. And we look at mortality and then the major complications. Fortunately we don’t have many complications with our cath PCI patients. Right now our heaviest reporting workload is for the STS, and we pay a lot of attention to what’s going on with surgery. We’ve worked on lowering our postoperative atrial fib rate for quite a few years, and have been able to get it down into the 20 percent range. In fact, one or two quarters we’ve even been below the STS value. We’re also looking very closely at renal failure.”
Volumes at the Bryan Heart are high; thus copious amounts of data are generated. Managing and monitoring all this data is critical to Bryan Heart’s success. After using the Lumedx Apollo clinical data repository for reports successfully for a number of years, Bryan Heart added Lumedx Analytics performance management software. The new solution, staff says, has turned out to be both versatile and powerful.
Drill-Down Saves Time, Yields More Meaningful Outcomes Reports
“From a registry standpoint, we’ve gained a lot, because with Lumedx Analytics we have reports, and now we have drill-down capability too. We can look more closely at the information in the report. So the drill down is a big advantage,” explains Linda.
The flexibility of the Analytics solution enables users to identify data trends and understand the causes.
“We compare our numbers by quarters and then do a total rolling quarters report and compare that with the STS, but the ability to break things down further can be helpful. For example, let’s say you find that one quarter your infection numbers are up. And perhaps you knew that in the month of February you were doing some OR renovations. So you could break down that quarterly report by month and see if your infections were up only during the OR renovations. And you could know that was why you had a problem. And take steps to prevent that in the future.”
For more information: www.lumedx.com
May 15, 2024 
