Reduce risks associated with safety monitoring of patients taking biologic and other specialist high risk medication
Product Overview and Intended Use
DAWN Patient Safety Monitoring (SM) software has been developed to help healthcare professionals (HCPs) manage patients being treated with specialist high-risk medications e.g. biologics, for mainly autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. The goal of the software is to make patient management safer and more efficient.
Patients with such disorders usually need to be regularly checked at appropriate time intervals, usually depending on their acceptable time on treatment, to ensure that their medication is doing no harm, for example, not causing neutropenia or liver damage. This process is primarily carried out in specialist secondary care departments and in some cases, in liaison with primary care.
Without any software aid, this checking process is time consuming, as it involves checking many thousands of tests and measures, which is subject to potential human error.
With the aid of DAWN SM software, blood tests and other measures are automatically screened to ensure that the required tests are not ‘out of line’ for a patient. This involves comparing the result with defined acceptable test ranges and/or detecting any significant drift or trend in the measure result. Note HCPs may configure the software to set specific test ranges and test intervals for a medication, a patient. or a patient group e.g. males or females.
If any deviation of these measures from the set standard is detected, the HCP is prompted by the software to review the patient’s information and any ‘out of line’ results. They can then decide, after viewing the patient’s relevant information, what intervention might be required,
The software also tracks patient non-attendance for blood tests, and those due for review and change of their testing time interval. Again, the HCPs are prompted to take appropriate action such as sending out a reminder letter.
To reduce any transcription error patient demographic data is obtained through an electronic interface to the hospital’s patient administration system and test results through an interface to the hospital’s pathology laboratory system. Note, data can also be entered manually
The software is in its third version, and has been in the field since the late 1990s and currently there are about 25 customers in various relevant hospital departments.
Click Here to Request a Demonstration of DAWN Safety Monitoring Software
Problem: Risk of Patient Harm
Many thousands of patients are being treated with biologics, immunosuppressants and other specialist high risk medications across the world and the safety monitoring of these patients, including checking thousands of test results per week, is predominantly done manually, which is open to human error.View the following video to discover how manual checking versus computer aided checking of out-of-line blood tests can affect the risk of patient harm:
Further, an example hazard identification and risk assessment matrix is shown below of the manual steps involved in monitoring patients and what can go wrong – likely lapses. (Click on the image to see a more detailed description of the scores included within the matrix)
*Note the Risk Grade score just enters the ‘Extreme’ Risk Grade, but has been conservatively set here to ‘High’ Grade. + Assumes software operated to Manufacturers recommendations*Taken from ‘Risks associated with healthcare professional safety monitoring: hazard identification and risk assessment guide with worked example’ from 4S DAWN Clinical Software and adapted from ‘A Risk Matrix for Risk Managers’, NPSA, January 2008
Prevention: Best Practice Monitoring Protocols
The use of computer aided safety screening of blood tests against patient specific targets for their disease/treatment ensures that patients are tested at the desired interval, all unacceptable test results are reviewed and followed up, and any non-attendance for tests is followed up efficiently.
There are two key activities:
Identifying Abnormal Test Results
- Streamline the monitoring of patient blood results by focusing solely on those that are out-of-line with customised alerts and worklists that show only those results that need attention.
- DAWN software enables disease or patient specific alert thresholds for test results to be set based on your clinic/service requirements.
- Along with worklists that show patients with abnormal results, this ensures out-of-line results are automatically highlighted and brought to the attention of clinical staff.
Managing Non-Attenders
- Manage your patient population efficiently and easily whilst maintaining a safe monitoring service that ensures patients don’t miss their planned tests and reviews.
- DAWN worklists enable you to focus on key groups of patients such as non-attenders to ensure that patients don’t miss their tests.
- Robust processes are in place for effective and efficient monitoring of patient follow-up, reducing potential errors and risk of harm to patients.
Click Here to Request our Quality of Care document and Safety Audit Checklist that can help you assess your serviceSolution: 4S DAWN Clinical Software
Our goal is to make patient management safer and easier.DAWN Safety Monitoring Software is a computer aided safety monitoring system for patients on biologics and other specialist high risk medications.Benefits:
- Alerts you to unacceptable or borderline test results
- Tracks non-attendance with automated follow-up to the patient
- Boosts your capacity to handle more patients with the same resource
- Facilitates reporting for audit and management purposes
- Establishes a streamlined ‘best practice’ workflow
4S DAWN Clinical Software currently have customers successfully monitoring patients using our safety monitoring software in areas such as:
- Rheumatology
- Dermatology
- Gastroenterology
- Respiratory
- Neurology
- Heart Failure
Click Here to Request a Demonstration of DAWN Safety Monitoring Software
