Cortex care coordination platform saving bed nights

Cortex care coordination platform saving hundreds of hospital bed nights every month in Canterbury

Canterbury District Health Board and the creators of Cortex, Sense Medical are delighted to introduce the newest version of the iPad and iPhone application to the wider health system. Cortex has been designed by clinicians for clinicians, to improve the quality of patient care and the efficiency of hospital care teams.

New Zealand software company Sense Medical will be presenting results of a major expansion of version 3 of their ground-breaking application ‘Cortex’ at the HINZ conference in Rotorua next week.

The Cortex care coordination platform allows doctors, nurses and allied health clinicians to work together seamlessly. The application provides documentation of clinical notes, team and individual task management, electronic ordering of diagnostic tests, notification of results availability, and direct access to the results themselves - all at the patient’s bedside.

Expanding the use of the platform within Canterbury District Health Board has produced dramatic results in the General Medical Surgical Division at Christchurch Hospital. Since the middle of June, patients have avoided more than a thousand nights in hospital; achieving an almost 20 percent reduction in the average length of stay.

Dr Alistair Rumball-Smith, Sense Medical’s Co-Founder, says the results are an exciting validation that using mobile technology can make a measurable difference to the efficiency of health care teams.

“DHBs around the country are under pressure to provide care with resourcing that cannot keep pace with increasing demand. Cortex can help ease some of this pressure through improving care efficiency, as these results from Canterbury confirm.”

The application was developed in collaboration with Canterbury District Health Board through their Via Innovations initiative, which was set up to support emerging health technology solutions.

Stella Ward, Executive Lead - Health Innovation at Canterbury and West Coast DHBs says the enthusiastic uptake of Cortex by clinicians and its proven benefits have led Canterbury DHB to commit to an expansion of Cortex across its hospitals, starting with the new Acute Services Building which has been designed to be ‘paperlite’ from day one.

“Removing paper from the inpatient journey helps to ensure that notes are legible, handovers are clearer and critical clinical information is always available to the right people at the right place and at the right time.”

“Cortex is a key component of our emergent paperless and world-class mobile environment in our hospitals.”

“We’re excited to be able to provide our clinicians with a tool that allows them to work smarter, quicker and more safely,” Stella says.

The HiNZ Conference is New Zealand's largest digital health event and is being held in Rotorua for three days from November 1. The conference will attract a diverse group of over 1000 delegates including clinicians, health sector managers, academics, educators, government, IT professionals and industry.

“All the key players in health and technology will be there and I look forward to conversations about how well Cortex is working for us and how it might benefit users on a national scale,” Stella says.

Further information about Cortex is available at http://www.sensemedical.co.nz.

ENDS

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