WASHINGTON, January 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- Pioneers of Electronic Adverse Event Detection and Real-time Healthcare IT Expand Pascal's Patient Safety Leadership

Pascal Metrics is pleased to announce that Dr. David Classen has joined Pascal Metrics as Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) and Stanley Pestotnik as Senior Advisor.  As CMIO, Dr. Classen will be responsible for Pascal's offering that helps hospitals and healthcare systems anticipate and avoid patient harm, readmissions, and other significant costs resulting from adverse events.  As Senior Advisor, Mr. Pestotnik will advise the CEO and senior leadership on extending Pascal's cloud-based services in real-time environments.

Drew Ladner, Pascal's CEO, said of the announcement:  "I can't think of a better duo of new colleagues to help Pascal extend its leadership in patient safety:  David pioneered the use of electronic health records for adverse event detection, and Stan pioneered the use of real-time healthcare IT.  As the pressure at healthcare systems builds to reduce cost and improve overall value, this leadership team expansion is clearly a big win for our client partners."

Today hundreds of hospitals and healthcare systems and thousands of users depend on Pascal HealthBench®, the field's leading cloud-based platform, to drive safety and quality improvement in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.  Combined with deep clinical and scientific expertise, HealthBench uses clinical triggers, other leading indicators, and innovative tools in software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to support improvement in the culture of safety, adverse event management, and leadership engagement and development.

Dr. Allan Frankel, Pascal's Co-Chief Medical Officer (CMO), explained that, "In the study that I co-authored with David and other colleagues last year in Health Affairs, what the data demonstrated with stunning clarity is the critical role that trigger tools are already playing in measuring and improving patient safety.  As a clinician, researcher, and technologist, David simply brings it all together."

Dr. Michael Leonard, Pascal's Co-CMO, summed up by saying, "After a decade of trying to improve patient safety with limited success, we now know that what's needed at the frontline of care to ensure sustainable improvement is culture and systems.  Building on what Pascal does in supporting cultural improvement, Stan's experience in listening to healthcare clients and building real-time products will provide valuable expertise as Pascal continues to build out systems for our partners."

Actively practicing as an infectious disease physician, Dr. Classen most recently was Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Senior Partner at CSC Healthcare and, immediately prior, CMO at First Consulting Group.  He was the initial developer of patient safety research and patient safety programs at Intermountain Healthcare throughout 1990s.  Dr. Classen developed, implemented, and evaluated a computerized physician order entry program at LDS Hospital that significantly improved the safety of medication use.  He was a co-developer of the IHI Global Trigger Tool and one of the country's first Healthcare Information Exchanges (HIE).  He currently is Co-Chair of the National Quality Forum's Patient Safety Common Formats Committee; was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee (IOM) that developed the National Healthcare Report; was also a member of the IOM Committee on Patient Safety Data Standards; and is currently a member of the IOM Committee on Health Information Technology and Patient Safety.

Dr. Classen received his medical degree from the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine and a Masters of Science degree in medical informatics from the University Of Utah School Of Medicine.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases.

Pestotnik is a clinical informatics entrepreneur and researcher with over 25 years experience in health IT focused on patient safety.  He is a co-founder and former CEO of TheraDoc, Inc., where he oversaw revenue growth in excess of 95%, six product releases, four patent awards and the company's acquisition by Hospira in December 2009.   Prior to TheraDoc, Pestotnik was the Director of LDS Hospital Drug Surveillance and Safety Program, as well as lead knowledge engineer of Intermountain Health Care's Infectious Diseases Informatics Group Ð credited with developing and deploying the United States first comprehensive clinical decision support software for infection control, antimicrobial stewardship, and adverse drug event surveillance.  Pestotnik has authored over 75 peer-reviewed publications on the clinical use of health IT in journals and serves on many review panels.  He is a member of the National Quality Forum (NQF) Health IT Advisory Committee (HITAC), the NQF Oversight Workgroup for the Quality Measure Authoring Tool and an advisor to Health and Human Service's Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Clinical Decision Support Expert Panel.

Pestotnik received his pharmacy and medical informatics degrees from the University of Utah College of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, respectively.

Jim Conway, who heads Pascal's Governance & Leadership group, summed up:  "What's exceptional about the work of both David and Stan is their provision of critical tools to identify, prioritize, and mitigate all cause harm.  There is no responsibility of providers, leadership, and governance more essential than harm reduction in their service to patients, families, and the public. For our clients, and the industry overall, we will be able, together, to show the way and highlight what can be possible."

About Pascal Metrics

Pascal Metrics is the preeminent provider in the healthcare industry of real-time patient safety and clinical improvement services to reduce patient harm and related cost.  Pascal's unique integration of clinical expertise and cloud-based services supports the delivery of comprehensive healthcare analytics and solutions, earning Pascal a position of trusted advisor for the field's leaders in areas such as the culture of safety, adverse event management, and leadership development.  Academic and community, not-for-profit and for-profit, and government and private hospitals and healthcare systems in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia have come to rely on Pascal HealthBench®, the field's leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, as well as supporting cloud services for next generation clinical care.  Pascal is based in Washington DC.

http://www.pascalmetrics.com

SOURCE Pascal Metrics