November 18, 2005
POE-CBORD communication
protects patients
With much fanfare, the MGH welcomed a new communication vehicle between
the Provider Order Entry (POE) system and CBORD — the computer system
MGH Nutrition and Food Services uses — at a ribbon-cutting ceremony
and reception held Oct. 27 in the Trustees Room. The new interface with
POE, which has been used at the MGH since 1998, allows physicians' orders
for patients' diets to be sent to CBORD as soon as they are written. Prior
to this automatic communication, operations assistants manually transcribed
all diet orders, which were picked up by Nutrition and Food Services staff
members and then phoned to the department's data center. Once received
at the data center, the diet changes were entered into CBORD. By eliminating
the middle steps of the process, the POE-CBORD interface dramatically
decreases the potential for error — an important health and safety
measure, given that many patients are on restricted diets. Improved patient
satisfaction and an easier workload for nursing and nutrition staff are
some of the new system's additional benefits. Since its implementation
in September, the accuracy of meal orders has increased to 95 percent.
From left, Marita Prater, RN, clinical nursing specialist; Jane Williams, RD, of Nutrition and Food Services; and Irina Kamis and Harold Meyers,both of Partners Information Systems