Dendress Corporation

In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, hospital quality departments simply can not keep operating with the same old processes and procedures, especially geographically diverse, multi-site health systems. Tracking and coordinating initiatives and activities with hand-written notebooks, scraps of paper and disparate computer programs just does not cut it any more.

Features and Benefits

Efficiency

•	Fast data input and easy to use, automated graphs, reports and analysis tools
•	Data collection and analysis can come from any number of sources
•	Point and click ease to start initiatives, schedule meetings, assign tasks, etc.
•	Users design their own easy-to-read “dashboard” of projects which appear on initial log-in screen
•	Reports give more details on any activity on a weekly, monthly or annual basis
•	Users are continually reminded of upcoming meetings, missing data, project deadlines and other work steps
•	Accessible 24/7 in one web-based system, from multiple sites
•	Easy training – no need for statistical instruction, etc.
•	Automatic calculations – eliminates drudgery of calculating and tabulating data
•	Ease of installation – web-based so nothing needs to be installed on hospital desktop systems

Communication

•	Fosters a cultural shift across all levels of an organization to doing it better as a team
•	Actively engages and involves quality team members in a more open organization
•	Team members, located anywhere within organization, can use system to view information in real time
•	Can replace the need for monthly meetings with virtual meetings and conferences
•	Automated communications -- notify team members of new initiatives via e-mail, generate reports, etc.
•	Replaces the suggestion box – everyone within the organization can use the system to submit ideas and can remain anonymous if they choose

Accountability

•	Facilitates the accreditation process by putting all information in one place
•	Aggregation of all quality data organization-wide, floor to floor, location to location
•	Improves working with accrediting agencies, government agencies, and even the press, with information instantly available and accessible
•	Demonstrates management’s commitment to open communication and prompt attention to any quality issues that may surface
•	24/7 monitoring let’s management know what’s really going on concerning quality within their organization
•	Links people to initiatives and outcomes – everyone knows what they have to do, when they have to do it and what is expected

Flexibility

•	Loaded with features – can be as comprehensive or as simple as an organization deems necessary
•	Data can be used, manipulated and presented in an almost infinite number of ways
•	Progress reports, financial reports, etc. are all easily designed with headers, text and graphics automatically incorporated
•	System easily accommodates growth and changes within an organization

Savings

•	Can help identify and fix problems that directly impact the bottom line
•	Increase efficiencies while reducing or eliminating waste and redundancies
•	Frees up personnel time and resources so they can focus on their core responsibilities
•	Economical compared to other healthcare applications

Management wants improved results. Accreditation agencies demand accountability…now. Quality team members need help to do their jobs better.

Truly successful quality departments are recognizing the importance of new tools and techniques to provide structure and organization to their quality and performance improvement activities.

Now, one of the most innovative new tools available is ACORN, a Quality, Process Improvement and Accountability System developed by a unique team of leading hospital management executives and software technology experts.

What is ACORN?
ACORN is an Intranet-based software package that puts everything in one convenient, easily accessible place for a systematic, organization-wide approach to development and monitoring of quality and process improvement activities.

ACORN grew from the collaboration of a leading hospital executive in the Pennsylvania-Ohio region and our software experts at Dendress. The hospital executive recognized the revolutionary concept we had developed and championed the ACORN system to other healthcare systems.

One of these was Ascension Health’s Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Evansville, IN. There, the St. Mary’s Quality team refined the system to become the innovative, reliable and rock-solid product it is at today.

ACORN puts everyone on the same page and involved in continuous improvement. It is much more efficient, intrinsically more reliable, and with minimal training, very easy to use by even novice users.

Hospitals using ACORN report that the system has become as common as e-mail in their daily workflow. In fact, ACORN incorporates automated e-mails and other features to improve communication among quality team members.

My Initiatives

Every time you log into ACORN you are greeted with your own customized view. You control what graphs are visible and what initiatives you wish to track. Intuitive icons rapidly point out areas needing attention or those that are moving along as planned. Thumbnail graphs provide a quick link to a more detailed view of the underlying data and the initiative titles provide similar access to the initiative's full story. Click on sections of the screen below for more information.

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Initiative Form

The initiative form provides a focal point for all those involved in the project. It contains the team member's names, how to contact them, their role and a complete overview of the issues being addressed and why. It also provides a 'central container' for all progress notes, indicator data and outside file attachments. No longer is there a need to worry about how to properly document and coordinate your improvement activates across the enterprise, ACORN does it for you.

Click image for a larger view.