Jack Nelson, Senior Vice President and CIO of Mount Sinai Medical Center

Q: What is the most interesting project you're currently working on?

A: " The implementation of McKesson's Horizon Surgical Manager system is he most interesting project we are working on this year. It will provide tangible benefits to a wide range of our constituents and improve the efficiency of many operational areas. Surgeons will benefit from the streamlined surgical scheduling process including the ability to view future schedules and request operating room time via the Internet. The availability of real-time patient tracking information will enhance communication between the operating room staff and the surgeons and will allow patient's families to be continuously updated as to where their loved ones are in the surgical process.

Nursing staff in the operating room will be able to efficiently generate all of the required clinical documentation via online data capture. And, the operating room management team will have data analysis tools in hand to quickly and effectively respond to the ever changing demands of a complex environment and to make data driven decisions for future planning.

The hospital's bottom line will be improved by automating the capture and transmission of operating room supply and time charges to our patient accounting system and by reducing supply chain costs through the implementation of perpetual inventory in the operating rooms. "