In previous postings, I have reviewed Invistics’ Flowlytics, HelioMetrics, and Kit Check’s Bluesight. At the recent IHFDA conference, I discovered another company called FairWarning, so will include them as well as Omnicell Analytics in future reviews. BD (HealthSight) has declined to participate. This blog will review Protenus.
Protenus was co-founded roughly five years ago by two med students who, during the course of completing a research project, found a practical application for what they were doing. The original application was a patient privacy monitoring solution. From there, they applied their solution to drug diversion monitoring and entered the market about a year ago. One thing they feel sets them apart is that they come from a compliance/risk perspective. If poor practice is discovered, a customizable email can be sent to the healthcare worker (HCW) and/or manager of the unit making them aware of the failure to follow policy. This is then recorded in the HCW’s profile and can be referred to for progressive discipline if there is a second infraction of the same policy. They also provide a care flow pathway which a customer can use to assist them during an investigation of suspected diversion. Protenus currently has the ability to monitor medications from the vault to the waste stream. They can integrate with the IV pumps, monitor controlled substances as well as non-CS, and pull in time and attendance. Protenus has the capability to integrate with the OR; however, they are immature in the OR because most of their clients don’t have the tools needed for OR integration and therefore the artificial intelligence does not have a lot of data points to incorporate. The Protenus customer I spoke to is from a facility with just over 300 beds utilizing Cerner and Omnicell. They were not Protenus’ customer for the patient privacy solution and previously used both Pandora and Omnicell Analytics for diversion monitoring. The decision for Protenus was made before my interviewee arrived at the facility, so the history of why Protenus was chosen is unknown. This client has chosen to take advantage of an additional service offered by Protenus, which entails Protenus monitoring all incoming data for the client and then sending the client an email with 5-10 alerts a week that would benefit from further investigation. The amount of emails received is the client’s choice. The client’s time spent on investigating alerts has gone from 4-5 hours per alert with Omnicell Analytics to 5-30 minutes per Protenus alert. Since implementing Protenus in June 2019, the facility has identified multiple significant practice issues. The client stated the implementation was smooth and all target dates were met. She is very happy with the product as well as customer service and stated, “The amount of change made based on feedback has been astronomical.”
