STELLARA Scores High at FHS

STELLARA Clinical Intervention andPatient Monitoring software, poweredby the TheraDoc Expert SystemPlatform, showed a significant cost savingsand reduction of adverse drugevents (ADEs) at Franciscan HealthSystem (FHS), according to a 6-monthstudy completed at the Tacoma,Wash-based health system. From July2004 to June 2005, FHS pharmacy managementtracked the number of medicationorders and the staff's productivityfor 6 months prior to STELLARA'simplementation, compared with thefirst 6 months post-implementation.

"We have experienced tremendoussuccess with STELLARA as our intelligentinterface software over the pastyear, which led to an increase in clinicalinterventions by our pharmacists,"said J. Kelly Martin, PharmD, director ofpharmaceutical services at FHS. "Weare seeing concrete results in theforms of cost savings and improvedpatient care. In 2005, cost savings frominterventions increased by 23%, andour pharmacists prevented 222 ADEs(a 23% increase from 2004) after implementationof STELLARA. Interventionsmade by pharmacists increased from17,906 to 27,667—a 55% increase."

Manufactured by bioMérieux Inc, theSTELLARA system provides knowledgeenriched,infectious disease-specific recommendationsto clinicians for medicationtreatment management. The companyrecently completed its suite ofIntelligent Patient Therapy SoftwareSystems, allowing the clinician to capturea more thorough view of the patient, preventingpotential medication errors, anddecreasing the chances of costly ADEs.