Burke Rehabilitation Becomes the First Post-Acute Care Hospital to Achieve Stage 6
(2/15/2011)

When Burke Rehabilitation Hospital (White Plains, NY) became a MEDITECH customer in 2002, they understood the benefits an electronic system could bring to their one-of-a-kind organization. Indeed, ever since the 150-bed acute rehabilitation hospital and research center embraced MEDITECH's integrated system, they've seen significant improvements in processes of care, physician adoption, and operational efficiency throughout their entire rehab facility. Today, HIMSS Analytics has recognized Burke's accomplishment with Stage 6 recognition, making it the first post-acute care hospital to receive this distinction.

"We are extremely proud to achieve this level of EMR adoption excellence," says Ken Kupetsky, CIO at Burke. "This award reaffirms our ongoing commitment to improve our clinical processes and achieve positive patient outcomes. Our hard work is getting noticed, we are successfully meeting our goals, and patients are benefiting--we couldn't be happier."

Solid MEDITECH Foundation Connects Care Settings
Kupetsky explains that the consistent collecting and measuring of electronic data at Burke was a big part of what eventually led them to Stage 6. "We didn't necessarily set out to achieve this recognition--we sort of fell into it when we made it our priority to improve efficiency and patient data collection, with an intent to use this data to improve patient outcomes," he says.

"We knew that in order to get the most out of our system, we needed to measure our data and use it as a benchmark so that we could evaluate our treatment programs and make adjustments for program efficiency. The MEDITECH system makes it easy for us to compare and trend data over time, as well as comply with rules and regulations, share results with other rehab hospitals, and make any necessary improvements which directly affect patient care."

On average, Burke treats 120 inpatient rehab patients a day and saw over 60,000 outpatients in the last year alone. In spite of heavy clinician workloads, their MEDITECH solution is helping to keep things running smoothly, according to Janet Herbold, compliance officer and I.T. liaison.

"MEDITECH ensures everyone from our reception staff to the therapists are able to manage the influx of patients we see on a day-to-day basis," she says. "Our system is utilized from the moment a patient is registered, to the time the patient is discharged, and every instance in between. It's allowing us to stay connected at each phase of care, whether it be in the acute or the outpatient environment."

Dr. Mary Beth Walsh, CEO at Burke, agrees that the ability to communicate important data to the varied health professionals involved in a patient's care is essential to building a true, patient-centered continuum. "MEDITECH's integrated system enables us to carefully monitor important patient outcomes, regardless of the care setting," she says. "This is especially important for us, since we cater to such a diverse population of patients."

MEDITECH's integration with Burke's other electronic systems has assisted with a multitude of care delivery and operational efficiency improvements. "With the integration of electronic systems, we've actually assured more consistent and accurate patient assessments, which translates into more accurate revenue," says Walsh.

We've also been able to minimize medication errors and reduce patients' lengths of stay. Furthermore, physician documentation times have decreased because clinicians are now able to chart in real-time and plan the next level of care with the patient, instead of waiting until the end of the day. We're seeing a wealth of integration benefits across the board."

Pursuing Successful Adoption Strategies, Meaningful Use
Herbold believes that many of the same strategies leading acute care facilities to Stage 6 success can work just as well for rehab hospitals. For Burke, it all came down to good communication with clinicians and a solid strategic plan. "We made sure our administration and key stakeholders were on board from the beginning," Herbold stresses. "It was also important for us to brand our efforts as a clinical project, not an I.T. project--while providing plenty of training and support to our staff throughout the process."

Cathy Dwyer, assistant director of I.T., adds that keeping clinicians involved with the decision-making also helped to facilitate good will and encourage buy-in. "We wanted to make sure everyone--physicians, nurses, and therapists--felt comfortable, on the same page, and ready to move forward collectively so that we could easily meet our goals," she says.

Burke recently licensed MEDITECH's Physician Care Manager (PCM) to help prepare for Meaningful Use, and is also in the process of creating a CCD interface in order to exchange information with other hospitals. "We are working on expanding our decision support, in the hopes of developing and sharing Best Practices specific to other rehab organizations," says Kupetsky.

"We are very pleased about how much we've accomplished in such a short time, and MEDITECH integration was a large part of it. I expect we'll be making our mark with Stage 7 very soon."

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