CCHMC, which has 383 beds and about 7,200 employees, has been recognized as a leader in patient care, research and medical education. At the 2004 HIMSS conference it is being recognized for its leadership on the IT front, with a Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence at HIMSS awards banquet on Feb. 24.

Over nine months, from April to December 2002, Cincinnati Children's implemented a clinical information system in all inpatient units except hematology and oncology (those units converted to electronic records in December 2003).

Since implementation the medical center has recorded a 35 percent reduction in medication errors and a 52 percent improvement between the time medicines are ordered and the time they are ready to be given to patients.

"Cincinnati Children's has taken computerize patient record systems to new dimensions of influence, usage and effectiveness, said Asif Ahmad, chairman of the Davies Award committee.

Dr. Brian Jacobs, the project director of Clinical Order Entry, credits the successful rollout and use of the system to "a very strong cooperative effort between the users (physicians and nurses) and the multi-disciplinary implementation team."

Jacobs' best advice to hospitals contemplating an electronic records system is to "ensure that the project is clinician driven and that doctors, nurses and ancillary healthcare providers have significant input into the design and implementation of the system."

The system at Cincinnati Children's is called the Integrating Clinical Information System, or ICIS, which refers to the entire clinical information system. Central to ICIS, and the major reason for earning the Davies Award, are clinical order entry (COE) and clinical documentation components.