Harris Corporation Implements Healthcare Business Intelligence Dashboard at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center

MELBOURNE, Fla. and WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has implemented its healthcare business intelligence dashboard to help improve clinical outcomes, patient safety and documentation processes at City of Hope , a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of Chicago-based University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC).  

Harris' Business Intelligence (BI) Practice Variation dashboards are used by physicians, hospital executives and coding professionals to provide meaningful internal and external comparisons --  identifying specific opportunities for improvement, and promoting physician and organizational learning.

Developed in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, Harris BI dashboards address multiple operational and clinical challenges to properly align the hospital staff with the strategic objectives of the organization.  Harris BI dashboards cover a diverse range of disciplines, including quality-performance improvement; patient access; cost and revenue; integrated disciplines; operating room processes; and special purpose divisions (infectious disease, pathology, pediatrics). 

"Harris analytics and business intelligence solutions will enhance City of Hope's strategic plan and performance improvement initiatives," said Vishal Agrawal, MD, president, Harris Healthcare Solutions. "Our business intelligence dashboard products will help drive results – both higher quality and lower costs.  It is exciting to be partnered with one of America's leading cancer centers to help them advance their groundbreaking work."

City of Hope chose all four Harris Practice Variation dashboards:

• Physician Insight Plus – Compares clinicians to their peer groups in terms of clinical outcomes, patient safety, and core measures
• Length of Stay – Analyzes length-of-stay data, to improve performance and access to care
• Cost per Case – Identifies variation in cost based on UHC's Universal Charge Master, to prioritize cost-reduction initiatives
• Documentation and Coding – Highlights opportunities where coding variations could impact financial performance and credit for severity of cases being treated

"City of Hope understands the critical need to compare outcomes and patient safety measures, as well as be able to assess performance data, cost variations, and coding variations," said Tricia Kassab, vice president, Enterprise Quality and Patient Safety, City of Hope.  "We are extremely committed to continually improving our performance in these areas.   

"To best serve our patients, it's crucial that we have access to risk adjusted, benchmark data. Through such data, we can create a roadmap to continuously improve the quality of cancer care," Kassab added.

A nationally recognized leader in healthcare IT integration, Harris offers a full range of interoperability solutions, including IT infrastructure and management, clinical workflow and analytics, health information exchange, and imaging.  Harris solutions improve health-care quality, safety, efficiency, cost and outcomes by ensuring that the right information travels, with security and privacy, to the right person, at the right time, on the right device, at the point of care.

About City of Hope
City of Hope is a leading research, treatment and education center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest honor bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, City of Hope's research and treatment protocols advance care throughout the nation. City of Hope is located in Duarte, Calif., just northeast of Los Angeles, and is ranked as one of "America's Best Hospitals" in cancer by U.S.News & World Report.  Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation and genetics. For more information, visit www.cityofhope.org or follow City of Hope on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Flickr.

About UHC
UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care.  Based in Chicago, Ill., UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 116 academic medical center and 275 affiliated hospital members through its renowned programs and services in the areas of comparative data and analytics, performance improvement, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy.  UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness.  Formed in 1984, UHC's membership includes a majority of the nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States.  For more information, visit uhc.edu.

About Harris Corporation
Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries.  Headquartered in Melbourne, Fla., the company has approximately $5.5 billion in annual revenue and about 15,000 employees — including 6,000 engineers and scientists.  Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications^® products, systems and services.  Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at harris.com.

SOURCE Harris Corporation