New Child Health Information System to Improve Medical Outcomes for Kids

Technology allows health screening record to follow patients from birth to childhood

University Health is using new technology to speed-up birth notifications and follow-up care for babies born at University hospital. The electronic Newborn Admission Notification Information (NANI) messaging exchange, from OZ Systems, will help provide effective, secure and confidential communication between the hospital and the state health department.

The platform will allow the health department to automatically and securely receive demographic information collected within University Health’s electronic medical record system as well as results from each baby’s hearing screening test. The system will establish an electronic child health screening record that may grow with and serve babies from birth through childhood. It also supports a critical element for University Health, as it prepares for Stage 2 Meaningful Use certification for electronic health information exchange.

Nearly 50 percent of U.S. infants in need of specialty healthcare following newborn hearing screening may not receive it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal of the new system is to ensure newborn infants found to have hearing-related problems receive timely and appropriate follow-up care.

“It’s so easy now,” explains Olga Haug, a registered nurse on University Hospital’s Labor and Delivery unit. “We don’t have to manually re-enter the information needed to provide care. This eliminates errors and is clearly one of the values of effective health information technology. It’s like having extra staff.”