Texas Children's Hospital gets data to clinical teams bedside to improve outcomes
The Houston-based health system for children and women is a HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence winner.
Texas Children's Hospital assistant vice presidents Tarra Kerr and Ashok Kurian
Photo: Courtesy of Texas Children's Hospital
Texas Children's Hospital, one the largest pediatric hospitals in the United States that also serves women, achieved HIMSS Stage 7 designation in the delivery of patient care and won a Davies Award for significantly improving clinical care outcomes.
This was accomplished using a coordinated approach backed by technology-enabled systems, including AI, according to assistant vice presidents Tarra Kerr and Ashok Kurian. The strategy was embedded in the structure of the C-Suite and board or trustees.
"It's embedded in our fabric," Kurian said.
For Kurian, who heads digital solutions and the data and analytics program within Information Services, the foundation was built on data.
"The first step is the collection of data," Kurian said. "Then you can start your journey."
Texas Children's Hospital has one of the largest pediatric data sets in the country. It uses telemetry to automatically collect, transmit and measure data that's sent out to physicians and operational leaders.
"We've spent a considerable amount of effort building a data analytics program," Kurian said. "This is just the foundation. We have a lot more to do. I truly believe data can tell a story so we can intervene before something does happen."
Kurian credits working with Epic for the past 15 years for being the system's main conduit to its clinical care teams. All of Epic's reporting tools are enabled at the health system.
"Our partnership with Epic is exceptional," he said.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The health system has designed a tech platform to create advanced algorithms. These analytic tools are used by clinicians at bedside.
"We built our own custom predictive model for patients at risk," Kurian said. "It includes AI, and we have a coordinator who looks at the data carefully. We don't blindly make decisions based on AI. The way I look at AI, it is a guidepost and an additional tool for anomalies outside of norm."
The system's AI journey started in 2015, at the same time Kurian joined Texas Children's Hospital. He previously worked for IBM. He and the team at Texas Children's have worked on 30-plus models.
"I have a team of data scientists, and we partner with many groups, such as pharmacy, and build algorithms depending on needs at that time," he said. "It makes clinicians and operations more informed."
Kerr, who heads Quality and Safety, leverages the system's simulation center, which she said has allowed them to open their doors to more innovation.
She's been at Texas Children's Hospital for 18 years and has been the simulation center leader for over two years.
The simulation center provides hands-on pediatric and obstetric simulation training. At the Medical Center Campus it includes several rooms and a theater, where staff can watch and record mannequin responses, vital signs and other information.
It can also simulate construction, such as a floor or a building. The system used a warehouse to simulate rooms and spaces before construction began at the Legacy Tower in the Medical Center, which is the primarily ICU tower.
"We hosted several SIMs with frontline team members," she said.
From this, they modified over 400 items in their construction plans such as the placement of windows.
"There's a lot of education in the simulation center," Kerr said. "We also have decentralized SIM rooms in different areas of the hospital campuses."
There's also a mobile SIM that goes on location and uses a video system to follow along with the team. For example, Kerr said recently a team hosted simulations all week in the new Texas Children's Hospital campus in Austin that's scheduled to open this year. It simulated routines, workflows and emergency responses across ambulatory clinics, emergency centers, acute care, intensive care, women's services, the sleep lab and more.
"I am watching it all virtually," Kerr said.
THE LARGER TREND
Texas Children's Hospital is the largest children's hospital in the United States, according to Kurian.
Texas Children's, headquartered in Houston, has three hospitals and is about to open a fourth in Austin.
It recently moved finance, HR, and supply chain processes to the cloud with Oracle Fusion Applications.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org
