Ten years after initiating a search for an electronic health record solution, the 15-hospital SSM Health Care (SSMHC) has successfully implemented seven hospitals, complete with 100 percent CPOE adoption. With eight more hospitals to go, the health system is on budget and on schedule to meet their targeted 2013 completion date. “We have a way
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After sending the Meaningful Use workgroup back to the drawing board last month, the Health IT Policy Committee approved the workgroup’s revised recommendations at its July 16 meeting. The approved Meaningful Use matrix can be viewed at http://hhs.gov/healthit. The recommendations, adopted by committee consensus, focus on leveraging technology to enable significant and measurable transformation in
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One of the most challenging parts of implementing an EMR system is getting physician buy-in and adoption. The Alabama Medicaid Agency (ALMA), through its Together for Quality (TFQ) initiative, has learned some valuable lessons about how to help physicians successfully integrate technology into their daily workflow and realize its benefits. “One of our goals since
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In these days of economic uncertainty, why spend millions on an expensive, complicated system if there’s a lower-cost alternative that does exactly what you need? Lutheran Medical Center, a not-for-profit community hospital in Brooklyn, NY, with a high percentage of Medicaid and uninsured patients, had that thought years ago, even before Carlsbad,CA-based Medsphere’s OpenVista clinical
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Banner Estrella Medical Center, part of the Banner Health system, opened the first all-digital hospital in its network in January 2005. Since then, it has become a model for implementing an electronic medical record system and using it effectively to improve care and cut costs. “We’re known as a learning lab,” says Sandi Davis, RN,
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Paul Peabody, Beaumont Hospitals’ CIO, offers these tips when developing a process for working with physician practices to implement EMR: 1. Be customer-focused. Have a goal of providing excellent customer service that provides value to the practices and supports them in their mission of providing quality service and care to their patients. 2. Build something
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Spurred by the passage of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan last month, one hospital is ramping up its efforts to prepare for an expected groundswell of interest in EMR implementation from its affiliated physicians. “We anticipate that when the incentive programs become available in the next year or two, they will be of great
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With some notable exceptions, small and rural hospitals have not been able to move as quickly as their larger, urban counterparts in implementing EHR systems. One of those exceptions is Nemaha County Hospital, a 20-bed Critical Access Hospital located in Auburn, NE. Nemaha began its EHR journey in September 2003. In 2002, two weeks into
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Bill Phillips, CIO of University Health System (San Antonio, TX) believes that the automation investments his hospital has made over the past three years have directly improved patient care and safety. “The whole transformation process has improved the continuum of care across our whole community,” says Phillips. “By taking advantage of the electronic environment in
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What started out as one of the conditions for moving into the Perelman Center, Penn Medicine’s new state-of-the-art ambulatory facility, Epic’s EpicCare ambulatory EMR implementation is now a initiative that clinical practices have embraced and are actively seeking. Even practices not slated for moving into the Perelman Center are lobbying for a slot in the
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