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Description

Goals
CHRISTUS Health implemented computer workstation SSO in 19 community hospitals. SSO technology places a badge reader at each workstation where clinicians tap ID badges to access EHRs and clinical care software. CHRISTUS Health evaluated long term costs/value of SSO implementation by assessing SSO’s impact on clinician workflow and efficiency.

We assessed clinical workflow/financial value of SSO implementation in reducing clinician log in time to oft-used clinical software programs and EHRs.

Approach
After implementing SSO, login time was sampled systematically in 128 logins over 7 days at 8 CHRISTUS hospitals. Mean first of shift login duration and mean reconnect login duration was compared to durations pre-SSO implementation. Dollar values of time saved were assigned to physicians, nurses and ancillary service providers. National estimates of the hourly wages of these end users were collected and averaged. Total per facility and enterprise-wide clinician time liberated from keyboard are reported in hours and dollars saved per week and per annum. We also calculated savings from use of virtual desktops and thin client infrastructure in averting replacement computer workstation purchases, projecting forward and assuming 80% cost reduction per unit.

Results
Following SSO implementation, first of shift login was reduced by 5.3 seconds (15.3%) and reconnect login duration in the balance of the shift was reduced 20.4 seconds (69.9%). Total weekly time savings enabled by SSO was 943.4 hours (78.6 12-hour shift equivalents) across 19 hospitals, a mean of 49.7 (4.1 shifts) per facility. Annually, 49,056.8 hours (4088.1 shifts) of mixed clinician time was liberated from keyboard for 19 hospitals, a mean of 2584.4 hours (215.4 shifts) per facility per year. The annual dollar value of clinician time liberated from keyboard to care for patients was $3,201,001 for 19 facilities and $168,474 per hospital per annum. Future savings due to desktop virtualization and use of thin client, in lieu of replacing more costly desktop computers, increases the annual savings conveyed by SSO to $3,330,601.

Conclusion
SSO favorably impacted clinician efficiency, focus on patient care and productivity in the 19 hospitals evaluated. SSO is a very cost-effective way to liberate clinician time from repetitive, time consuming logins to clinical software applications and the EHR.

Describe the new knowledge and additional skills the participant will gain after attending your presentation.: Participants learn best practices from CHRISTUS Health's new computer workstation single sign-on (SSO) platform, which reduced clinician log-in time, improved workflow, and delivered bottom-line savings. Due diligence and planning before introducing new technology examine stressors on existing infrastructure (hardware and software), and will be included in the pilot implementation. SSO implementation has heightened attention to the challenges of integrating new technology.

Authors:

George Gellert (Presenter)
CHRISTUS Health

John Crouch, CHRISTUS Health

Presentation Materials:

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