Liberty-Dayton Regional Medical Center has plunged into the digital world after contracting with the world’s largest medical records company in Cerner.
The Kansas City health care technology supplier has worked with the hospital to converge them from recording patient information on paper to an electronic health record system.
According to Matt Thornton, chief executive officer at the hospital, doctors now have an electronic system that makes it easier for them to see accurate and up-to-date information about a patient’s health and connect the dots for proper and efficient treatment across the hospital.
“It has taken us from 100 percent paper where only our billing was electronic to encompassing 100 percent of our facility into basically one large medical record so that everything talks to each other,” the excited CEO said.
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He explained that patients who have been in the clinic at any time as an outpatient for a cat scan, ultra-sound, MRI, or any other procedure for example, will have even those records at the fingertips of physicians should they need them in the future, especially in an emergency setting.
“It could be life-saving,” he said.
The electronic system also helps reduce medical errors to provider patients with safer care.
“Should you end up in the emergency room six months or nine months later, the doctor will be able to pull up any of your prior records in less than 10 seconds,” and would aid doctors in making potentially life-saving procedures on the patient.
Crucial information, such as the knowledge of allergies, could prevent mistakes that could jeopardize the health of a patient and would be at the fingertips of attending doctors.
“The primary benefit is patient care,” he said. “It makes for a much safer environment. Every decision we’ve make is now coupled back to how does this effect the patient? how does it make it safer for our patients? and how does it help us to provide better care for our patients?” If it does not meet that threshold, Thornton says they just don’t do it.
Historically, if you’re in the emergency room waiting for care, somebody would have to go down the hallway of the hospital, to the medical records department (assuming it’s after hours), they would have to figure out where the physical medical record for their patient is being kept, pull the chart, bring it to the emergency room doctor who then must read all of the hand-written documentation that the previous provider had documented.
“Now, with a laptop, the doctor can pull up the patient information without leaving the confines of the area and get any prior information on the patient that will assist them in making decisions on patient care,” Thornton said.
“It truly elevates the patient experience,” he said.
Thornton also added that once the patient is stable or is sent home for follow-up with their own physician, the information can be sent via email to the doctor or the discreet data can even be saved onto a CD for the patient to hand carry to their doctor.
The administrator said he is already working with area nursing homes and assisted living centers to help them upload the information on their patients into their database.
“The information on our software allows me to look at trending information like a patient’s blood pressure. If it’s trending upward significantly the doctor can make adjustments to medications,” he said.
That applies to every possible lab value connected to a patient.
“We also have the capability of monitoring some of those remotely,” Thornton said. If there’s something that they can see that is trending in the wrong direction, they might be able to help prevent them from having an emergency room visit by addressing the issue immediately.
“Primary care physicians are utilizing an electronic medical record of some sort,” the CEO said.
As partners with Cerner who has a software called CareAware for PCPs, it allows them to connect with an interface that would be bi-directional with the hospital. Many still use a third-party vendor, but it is still exportable into the system.
“Our data would transfer to them as needed, and there’s to us,” he said.
Thornton feels safe with the information and pointed out that Cerner was recently awarded the bid for the entire Department of Defense and the Veteran’s Administration hospitals are converting to Cerner.
“Security is always a factor but not for us,” he said. “It’s not something that keeps me up at night.”
With the VA connection, veteran patients no longer have to travel down to the VA hospital for care.
“We can take care of them for all of their patient care here in Liberty instead and link that data back to the VA,” the CEO said.
The investment into the technology was close to $1 million and included the upgrade of computers on the campus, printers, laptops, document scanners, bar code scanners, and the software.
Medications are now delivered with bar codes that are scanned into patient records at the time of administration.
“There are seven different forms of patient identification before we give them a medication and it adds to that safety factor,” he said.
There’s no more having to manually write information on small tubes that can be difficult to read. Thornton said the labels would destroy themselves should someone try to take one off and replace it with another.
“Then it would be considered a contaminated specimen and not considered for use,” he said.
While handling the medical information is key for hospital staff, the software also can handle dietary aspects of the patient while in care, all the way down to housekeeping.
“It is state-of-the-art and truly encompasses the entire hospital,” the administrator said.
In addition to the software, Thornton will go before the hospital district board to request the latest CAT scan machine to round out the upgrades in radiology.
The hospital will also house a mass spectrometer, an apparatus for separating isotopes, molecules, and molecular fragments according to mass. Equipment of that nature is almost unheard of for a hospital the size of Liberty-Dayton.
“To have that high level of testing in our lab is a huge benefit,” he said.
Thornton said the addition of the technology throughout the hospital allows them to attract more high-quality physicians.
“In order to bring them here, our actual building is old, but the technology that physicians expect needs to be at their disposal. I’m not going to provide them with just enough to get by on, but technology that rivals many larger hospitals,” he said.
It becomes a recruiting tool for top talent.
“We are trying to put ourselves in a position where we can build a new building and that’s a short-term goal,” he said.
That pathway comes from a journey that has not always been the best in the past.
“We understand that. That’s what makes it so tricky for getting some of those folks back. We’ve changed and administration follows up on every complaint and we’re going to be there for the people,” he said.
The new technology is attracting talented medical personnel and achieving their goal of a new facility is on the horizon with investors who are interested.
“We are definitely exploring all of our opportunities,” he said. Thornton only asks the community give them a chance.
Date: January 14, 2019
Source: Chron