Doctors Get Better Decision Support Tools

Christus Health, which operates about 40 U.S. healthcare facilities, is rolling out clinical decision support software from Elsevier to about two dozen of its Texas hospitals.

The non-profit, Catholic health system is based in Dallas but has hospitals, physician offices, and clinics in 70 cities in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Utah, and Mexico.

Christus is rolling out five Elsevier online clinical support offerings, including Clinical Pharmacology, which provides drug information. It's also using Elsevier's ToxED 2.0, which helps treat drug overdoses; First Consult, which offers point-of-care, evidence-based decision support; MD Consult, which integrates several medical resources in an online service; and Mosby's Nursing Consult, which helps nurses quickly find answers to clinical questions.

Elsevier recently unveiled an online tool for its Mosby's Nursing Consult product. The reference module, called Never Events, describes 10 avoidable medical mistakes that can occur in hospitals.

Those mistakes came from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' list of avoidable, adverse events, for which CMS has said it won't reimburse hospitals. The list includes leaving foreign objects inside people after surgery, air embolisms, and blood incompatibility.

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