Banner Health is the first health care system in the western United States to implement the Intelligent Patient Record for Obstetrics (IPROB).

IPROB provides clinical decision support, documentation and monitoring to help reduce complications during childbirth, ensuring safe delivery for the more than 30,000 babies born at Banner facilities each year.

The innovative system acts as a complete obstetrics chart for physicians and nurses. It offers prompts and reminders based on thousands of best-practices procedures and protocols.
“In essence, it is a giant alert system that will pick up on a subtle clinical event. Our obstetric physicians have become so incredibly enthusiastic about this,’’ said Peter S. Fine, Banner Health President and CEO.

Within its first six months, the system initiated 1,360 instances where a contraindication prompt resulted in an action, decision or order not made.

IPROB will be implemented at all facilities by February 2008.
IPROB is part of Banner’s systemwide Care Transformation initiative, which unites best practices in clinical care with leading edge clinical computer systems to provide better, safer care to patients. IPROB incorporates the same principles, and uses an electronic medical record system to provide physicians and nurses with customized treatment plans and documentation system to help prevent medical errors.

Under IPROB, technological upgrades allow for meticulous documentation as care is being provided. The improved documentation supports caregivers in providing care and helps them avoid making mistakes.

During labor, monitoring the mother’s progress and checking on the baby’s well-being are critical. IPROB also includes upgraded fetal monitoring equipment that provides real-time information to the health care team remotely, improving access to information and helping with care decisions.