Last week’s announcement of Newman Regional Health’s involvement in a real-time notification alert system reflected seven months of testing — and almost two months of work in a live setting.
Hospital administrators joined KVOE’s Talk of Emporia on Friday to discuss RapidAlerts Direct in more detail. The hospital served as a testing site for the new alert system, working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and with KONZA National Network, a health information exchange company. Newman Regional Health Clinical Analyst and Licensed Practical Nurse Lindsey Hansen worked on the back end to iron out any technological issues that arose during the development process.
RapidAlerts Direct is focused on MDROs, or multi-drug-resistant organisms — an increasing concern across the medical field as certain bacteria develop resistances to antibiotics. It’s also focused on incoming and transferred patients — starting with information from KONZA, as Infection Prevention Nurse Patricia Parks explained:
Marketing and Events Coordinator Saylor Middleton called the partnership a reminder that the hospital is dedicated to serving local and area residents.
Newman Regional Health actually went live with the system in December. The system has had two confirmed alerts, both in the last week, and one incident where an alert did not reach the hospital since it went live.
Plans are for RapidAlerts Direct to go nationwide.
