GetWellNetwork doing well with hospitals

In other health IT news, a study found that Google-type word searches of hospital medical records are better at detecting patient safety issues than searches using numerical billing codes.

MSNBC: Hospitals Implement GetWellNetwork At Record Pace
GetWellNetwork, Inc., provider of the industry's leading interactive patient care (IPC) solution, today announced an increase of 25 percent growth in beds in the first half of 2011, compared to the same period last year, outpacing forecasts. As hospitals become more focused on patient engagement, education, and improving the patient experience, the need for advanced IPC solutions like those from GetWellNetwork is increasing. Additionally, the need to achieve Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements is also attributed to the strong growth. "Patient engagement has emerged as a core strategy for performance improvement, as hospitals move aggressively to meet Meaningful Use criteria and value-based purchasing under health reform," said Michael O'Neil, founder and CEO of GetWellNetwork (8/24).

Bloomberg: Google-Like Word Searches Of Medical Records May Boost Patient Safety
Google-like searches of hospital medical records using English words and phrases found more patient injuries than the numerical billing codes used to rate quality of care, pointing toward a better way to highlight safety issues, a study found. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reviewing patient records at six VA medical centers turned up 12 times as many cases of pneumonia and twice as many incidents of kidney failure and sepsis, a blood infection, when they used text searches instead of numeric codes linked to reimbursements (Young, 8/23).