New Electronic Child Medication Safety System Launches at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center

DENVER, Sept. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new electronic medication system, the Artemis system, is now in use at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL which adds a new level of safety when it comes to giving kids the right amount of medicine in an emergency situation.

The Artemis system is carefully designed to speed up calculations and reduce mistakes.  Dr. James Broselow, inventor of 'The Broselow Tape' and Dr. Robert Luten, Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, University of Florida, Jacksonville, combined the Broselow system with Luten content to quickly deliver precise accurate information.  

In the early 1980's Dr. Broselow was an emergency room doctor who saw how difficult it was to treat children in the ER.  He knew there was a better way to administer medication safely so he created 'The Broselow Tape.'  This is a simple, but effective, color-coded tool that determines body weight from body length and provides proper dosing for children.

The Broselow tape is used in practically every pediatric hospital in the country.  He's taken this proven system to the next level by creating the electronic version called Artemis.  This new technology takes the potential for medication dosing errors out of human hands.  While the Broselow Tape system works, we wanted to do whatever possible to make medication dosage even safer.  Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL is the first of all our HealthONE pediatric hospitals to implement Artemis and HealthONE is the only health care system that will be using this electronic medication safety system within the entire Rocky Mountain West region.

Today, Dr. James Broselow demonstrated the Artemis system at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL, comparing the old hand written calculations to the new electronic Artemis system in a visual display.  The amount of time saved by using the Artemis system was astonishing.  Adding to the time saved, the precision of calculations bring pediatric medication safety to an entirely new level.

The RMHC at P/SL Emergency Department, located on High Street between 19th and 21st, started using it Monday, Sept. 19th and the rest of the HealthONE Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children Emergency rooms around the metro area will begin using the safety system Monday, Sept. 26, 2011.

We are proud to offer this safety system to our community, our patients and their families. 

About Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children (RMHC)

A regional resource for specialty pediatric care, the hospital was founded nearly 20 years ago by private practice pediatric specialists at HealthONE's Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center in central Denver. It is home to the region's largest and most successful high-risk maternity service and an 84-bed intensive care newborn nursery—keeping mothers and babies together in the same hospital for optimal care. The $120 million pediatric facility opened in Aug. 2010 with expanded pediatric services and medical office building space.

RMHC's focus on patient care and quality monitoring extends throughout HealthONE's family of hospitals to enhance existing services and bring specialty pediatric care closer to patients in their home community.  HealthONE hospitals provided care to nearly 100,000 children in 2009 through inpatient and outpatient services.

About HealthONE

HealthONE is the largest healthcare system in the metro Denver area with 8,700 employees and 3,000 affiliated physicians. The health system is a Colorado company created in 1995 as a 50/50 joint venture between non-profit The Colorado Health Foundation, Colorado's second largest charitable foundation, and various affiliates of HCA (NYSE: HCA). 

HealthONE includes: The Medical Center of Aurora and Centennial Medical Plaza; North Suburban Medical Center; Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center (P/SL) and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children; Rose Medical Center; Sky Ridge Medical Center; Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital; Swedish Medical Center and Swedish Southwest ER; 13 ambulatory surgical centers; more than 30 occupational medicine/rehabilitation, specialty, and outpatient diagnostic imaging clinics; and AIRLIFE Denver, which provides critical care air and ground transportation for an eight-state region.

SOURCE Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children