Kettering Health Network Turns to Nuance to Improve Emergency Room Outcomes

The Kettering Health Network is turning to Nuance to improve its documentation and decision-making workflows in the emergency room. To that end, Kettering will be making use of Nuance’s Dragon Medical Advisor, and its Emergency Department Guidance utility in particular.

The Emergency Department (ED) Guidance is a computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) solution that allows physicians to use their voice to record important details while treating patients in the Emergency Room. It will also be integrated with content from the Sullivan Group, which helps doctors make better decisions with contextual advice about clinical best practices. The system makes it easier to diagnose a problem in a chaotic ER environment, and leads to better health outcomes for patients. It also leads to better legal outcomes for physicians, since they are less likely to face a malpractice complaint.

The Emergency Department Guidance will be deployed at all 12 of Kettering’s emergency centers, and builds on Kettering’s existing relationship with Nuance. The Health Network is already using the Dragon Medical One electronic health record (EHR) platform, a conversational assistant that lowers the amount of paperwork that doctors need to fill out after every visit.

“We see Nuance Dragon Medical One and Dragon Medical Advisor as essential tools that help physicians use the EHR efficiently for delivering high-quality patient care,” said Kettering Chief Medical Information Officer Charles Watson. “Patient safety and reducing the administrative burden are priorities for all physicians, especially in the ED, where the nature of care presents special challenges and risks. The ability to add those tools and data analytics will help us align our clinical and compliance practices with diagnostic drivers more quickly and accurately.”

Nuance teamed up with The Sullivan Group in October of 2019, specifically to improve the emergency performance of its Dragon Medical Advisor. The company has recently provided Dragon Medical technology for the Cerner Corporation and MEDITECH.

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October 27, 2020 – by Eric Weiss