About Korchek technologies

Info taken from the Korchek website: www.korchek.com

Korchek is a Trumbull based healthcare software and service provider. The company provides the CareChek Patient Identification System, as well as blood bank validation and data conversions.

They are partnered in - The Partnership for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs is a new public-private partnership that will help improve the quality, safety and affordability of health care for all Americans.

Korchek’s services

Data validation

Our three-step method will ensure your validation is thorough and compliant.

• Plan All validation projects must start with a master plan. The plan defines the project, assigns responsibility for tasks, and outlines the methodology to be used.
• Script Test scenarios that are customized to your site. These test scenarios guide the validator through the data entry and the expected results.
• Execute Once the scenarios are written they must be executed. Scenarios are performed and the input and outputs are documented.

Data conversion

Korchek's conversion process is a turn-key solution.  Korchek will work with your hospital to:

• Establish connectivity to your legacy system
• Extract data from your legacy system
• Develop a repeatable process to transform that data into vendor's file specifications
• Perform a complete "mock" or test conversion of the data prior to the activation of your new system
• Make changes and revisions to the process until you are satisfied with the results
• Schedule and plan a final extraction and conversion with the aim of minimizing downtime while the data is migrated

CareChek

The CareChek™ patient identification system uses bar code scanning to ensure positive patient ID at the bedside. The system uses handheld computer technology at the point-of-care to positively match the patient to a specimen, blood product, or medication.

The system is modular to give you the flexibility of implement any combination of modules.

• CareChek Tx™ - Blood Product Administration
• CareChek Sp™ - Specimen Collection
• CareChek Rx™ - Medication Admin
• CareChek Lc™ - Breast Milk Collection & Feeding

Utilizing a standard HL7 interface enables the system to transmit and receive orders for specimen collection, blood product administration and medication administration. Activities are completed at the point-of-care and records of the activity are transmitted to an electronic medical record or printed. CareChek has the ability to customize chart reports, error logs and clinical occurrence reports.

Report system

Does your blood bank system provide the reports that you need? Have you recently converted to a new system and found that reports that document essential processes are missing? The Korchek Report System provides you with reports every blood bank needs for the most widely-used computer systems. Our reports are designed by blood bankers, for blood bankers. We offer support plans which will give you automated access to a growing library of reports.

Report types:

• Audit
• General
• Inventory
• Patient
• Transfusion

Other information:

A study in 2003 found that 1 in 165 blood samples is mis-labeled. Another study found mis-transfusion with 1 in 400 units of blood. Improving patient identification has been a JCAHO and CAP initiative for the past 2 years.

In any data migration, there are three steps:

• Extract data from the legacy system
• Transform the data to vendor's file specifications
• Import the data into the new system or database.

The Joint Commission's (TJC) number-one National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) for 10 years running expects hospitals to "improve the accuracy of patient identification." "The intent for this goal is two-fold: first, to reliably identify the individual as the person for whom the service or treatment is intended; second, to match the service or treatment to that individual."

Currently, the goal does not require utilizing positive ID technology. However, when matching blood products with patients, an accompanying note in the most recent "standards of performance" reads: "If two individuals are not available, an automated identification technology (for example, bar coding) may be used in place of one of the individuals."

Bar coding has slipped, almost unnoticed, into The Joint's playbook. However, I believe it won't be too long before bar coding will be moved from an example to an expectation for fulfilling the first NPSG. In the meantime, I anticipate that over half of our nation's hospitals will have voluntarily implemented bar coding at the point of care (BPOC) before TJC actually presses the issue. We're somewhere near the 30 percent mark today.

So, what is your hospital doing to improve the accuracy of patient identification? Does your game plan include implementing BPOC?

Use of QR codes for patient ID

Take a look at my idea: http://myhitthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-device-proposal.html

Patient ID QR codes:

• Scannable in all directions
• Small size
• Can be repeated
• Better read when bent
• More information

 

On wrist band:
This has already been done!
http://salmapatel.com/healthcare/qr-code-on-hospital-wristband

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Using problem steps recorder in Windows 7

Not HIT related exactly, but here's a hidden tool that could could be helpful - Windows 7 has a problem steps recorder.  It might be helpful for tracking errors in a software program or used to create a how-to document. 

View the MS help page

To record and save steps on your computer:

1. Open Problem Steps Recorder by clicking the Start button , and then typing psr. In the list of results, click psr.
2. Click Start Record. On your computer, go through the steps on your computer to reproduce the problem. You can pause the recording at any time, and then resume it later.
3. Click Stop Record.
4. In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the file, and then click Save (the file is saved with the .zip file name extension).
   To view the record of the steps you recorded, open the .zip file you just saved, and then double-click the file. The document will open in your browser.

To save the problem steps in e-mail:

• After recording and saving a .zip file, click the help down arrow , and then click Send to E‑mail recipient. This will open an e‑mail message in your default e‑mail program with the last recorded file attached to it.  Note: You won't be able to click the Send to e‑mail recipient option until you've recorded and saved a file.

To annotate problem steps:

1. Open Problem Steps Recorder by clicking the Start button , and then typing psr. In the list of results, click psr.
2. Click Start Record.
3. When you want to add a comment, click Add Comment.
4. Use your mouse to highlight the part of the screen that you want to comment on, type your text in the Highlight Problem and Comment box, and then click OK.
5. Click Stop Record.
6. In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the file, and then click Save.
   To view the record of the steps you recorded, open the .zip file you just saved, and then double-click the file. The document will open in your browser.

To adjust settings:

When you adjust settings for Problem Steps Recorder, they're only saved for your current session. After you close and reopen Problem Steps Recorder, it will return to the regular settings.

1. Open Problem Steps Recorder by clicking the Start button , and then typing psr. In the list of results, click psr.
2. Click the help down arrow , and then click Settings.
3. You can change the following settings for Problem Steps Recorder:
   • Output Location. If you don't want to be prompted to save a file after recording, click the Browse button to set a default output file name.
   • Enable screen capture. If you don't want to capture the screen shots along with the click information, select No. This might be a consideration if you are taking screen shots of a program that contains personal information, such as bank statements, and you are sharing the screen shots with someone else.
   • Number of recent screen captures to store. While the default is 25 screens, you can increase or decrease the number of screen shots. Problem Steps Recorder only records the default number of screen shots. For example, if you took 30 screen shots during a recording but only had 25 screen shots as the default, you would be missing the first five screen shots. In this case, you would want to increase the number of default screen shots.