Cutting edge technology in a municipal health care system: A driving force to quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency in patient care

NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is a public benefit corporation, the largest municipal hospital and health care system in the country serving 1.3 million New Yorkers annually w/400,000 uninsured. It has 11 acute, 4 long term care, 6 diagnostic/treatment centers, a health/home care and managed care agencies providing general, chronic, ambulatory and skilled nursing care w/a variety of specialized services to a largely disadvantaged and undeserved population.

In order to effect the President's agenda “ to make HHC the safest facility in 2010, we continue towards a transformational path to increase the delivery of quality, safe, efficient and patient-centered care through the use of modern technology in the implementation of evidence-based medicine to drive clinical practices, and efficiently use resources to redesign and streamline operations.

HHC has been leading in the implementation of information technology since 2003 by continuing to add state-of-the-art features to its advance electronic medical record, picture archiving communications system (PACS), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), chronic disease registry for Diabetes and Smoke Cessation, HIV testing, depression screening, asthma action plans and e-commerce to make purchasing more cost-effective. The outpatient PARATA Robotic Dispensing System and the inpatient robot, nicknamed “ROBOPHARM” capable of filling medicine bottles with medication, capping, labeling and sorting patient names was implemented in 2005. Bar coding scanning, high speed packaging and synchronized MISYS information system, enable ROBOPHARM to expedite bedside medication, reduce errors, and provide long term hospital cost savings. In addition, physician e-mail registry enables to readily contact appropriate physicians on important corporate procedures, policies and seek consultations.

As a result, HHC President, Mr. Aviles, was named in August 2007 by Modern Healthcare Magazine as among the 100 most powerful people in healthcare chosen from a list of 300 nominees including President Bush, three presidential candidates, Bill Gates and other governmental leaders.