William Wernick, RN, holds an action tablet in the chemotherapy infusion room at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Keene.
Keene, NH - Oncology physicians and nurses have implemented a new chemotherapy system, designed to increase the accuracy and safety of cancer medication at the Kingsbury Pavilion (KP), which is the Keene hub of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center. The advancement, called IntelliDose, moves physician orders off paper and into an electronic system.
“It provides a more complete picture of a patient’s complex care needs,” said Jennifer Michelson, director of the cancer treatment center at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene. “Instead of seeing just one order for chemotherapy , we have a clear and concise dashboard of information on the patient’s diagnosis, treatment plan, allergies, and previous treatment history.”
Planning the change to an electronic ordering system has taken years of evaluation, while building and implementing the new system took six months.
“Nurses now have tablets on their laps when they sit with patients in the infusion room making the chairside assessment real-time,” said Michelson.
All the information input by nurses and doctors in Intellidose migrates to a patient’s electronic medical record. By eliminating any misinterpretations of handwriting due to illegibility, adding numerous safety checks, and standardizing protocols the system helps reduce the possibility medical errors and improves the communication within the oncology care team.
”It is also more efficient,” said Michelson. “Nurses can spend more time with patients and less time entering patient information and treatment notes into the electronic medical record because all the information is already there.”
