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LOS ANGELES, April 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Zynx Health™, a market leader in providing evidence- and experience-based clinical improvement solutions, congratulates customer North York General Hospital (NYGH) for being named a 2016 HIMSS Enterprise Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence winner for its eCare initiative. The prestigious award, which recognizes the outstanding achievements of organizations that have used health information technology (HIT) to substantially improve patient outcomes, was presented at an evening banquet during the recent Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2017 Conference & Exhibition in Orlando.  

Toronto-based NYGH, with 426 acute care beds spread across three sites serving a diverse population of more than 400,000, became the first acute care hospital in Canada to receive a HIMSS Davies award by submitting a total of four case studies documenting improvements achieved under its multi-year eCare initiative. The eCare Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system component was powered in part by evidence-based clinical decision support (CDS) and order sets from Zynx Vital Interventions and ZynxOrder^®

"Our hypothesis entering into the eCare initiative was that by replacing paper-based orders with standardized electronic order sets and evidence-based CDS, we could substantially improve patient outcomes," said Jeremy Theal, MD, FRCPC, chief medical information officer at NYGH. "By engaging our physicians and other clinical professionals in a multi-year process of building a library of more than 850 electronic order sets, we were able to drive high adoption rates which led to significant clinical improvements. We are honored that our efforts were recognized with this award."

As the new electronic order sets were developed, they were carefully integrated into clinical workflows. The result was that NYGH clinicians fully embraced use of the new evidence-based CPOE system. This important shift in culture was evidenced by an increase in physician order set use on hospital admission from 37 percent of medical patient volume using paper-based processes, to more than 97 percent with eCare.

Development and widespread use of the CPOE system is already making a difference in patient outcomes. For example, NYGH has been able to substantially reduce in-hospital adverse events from medication errors, and achieve a statistically significant reduction in deaths from pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The hospital was also able to cut the rate of inpatient venous thromboembolism (VTE) by 39 percent by ensuring the proper prophylaxis was ordered for each patient at the appropriate time.

An additional implementation of closed-loop medication administration (CLMA) as part of the eCare initiative was able to eliminate manual administration of medications. The CLMA system issues an alert if a medication about to be administered does not match the drug, dose, route, timing, and/or intended patient indicated in the active orders in the patient's electronic health record. Since CLMA was implemented, NYGH has been able to prevent more than 11,000 administration errors where a medication could have been given to the incorrect patient.

"NYGH is a tremendous example of what can be accomplished when clinicians wholeheartedly embrace the use of standardized, evidence-based CDS," said Kevin Daly, president of Zynx Health. "By involving the clinicians who would be affected from the beginning, they were able to accelerate adoption, which led to many lives being saved and quality of life improved. We congratulate them on receiving a well-deserved HIMSS Davies award and look forward to continuing to help them make a difference in the lives of their patients."

About North York General Hospital
North York General Hospital, affiliated with the University of Toronto, is one of Canada's leading community academic hospitals. We offer our culturally diverse community a wide range of acute care, ambulatory and long-term care services across three sites. Through partnerships, collaboration and academic endeavors, we seek to set new standards for patient- and family-centered care. Working together with our patients and their families, we are making a world of difference.

About Zynx Health
Zynx Health, part of the Hearst Health network, provides healthcare professionals with vital information and processes that guide care decisions and reduce complexity across the entire patient journey in a way that leads to healthier lives for all. Zynx is a pioneer and market leader in evidence- and experience-based clinical solutions that help health systems improve patient outcomes, financial outcomes, clinical engagement and technology performance. With Zynx Health, healthcare organizations exceed industry demands for delivering high-quality care at lower costs under value-based reimbursement models. To learn more, visit zynxhealth.com or call 855.367.ZYNX.

About Hearst Health
The Hearst Health network includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health, MCG, Homecare Homebase, MedHOK, Hearst Health International, Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab (www.hearsthealth.com). The mission of the Hearst Health network is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person's health journey. Each year in the U.S., care guidance from the Hearst Health network reaches 84 percent of discharged patients, 177 million insured individuals, 60 million home health visits, and 3.1 billion dispensed prescriptions.

SOURCE Zynx Health