MEDITECH
Celebrates First 6.0 Customer to Reach Stage 6
Doylestown Hospital's latest achievement proves the 6.0
platform supports safe, quality patient care delivery.
(4/5/2010)
Doylestown Hospital (Doylestown, PA) has a
long history of high ambitions and high quality, and it is
this drive for excellence which led them to become early
adopters of 6.0, MEDITECH's most advanced platform. As a
result, the organization is now adding another notch to their
achievement belt, as they recently received Stage 6 EMR
recognition from HIMSS Analytics. Rick Lang, vice president
and CIO of Doylestown, believes that 6.0 played a major role
in Doylestown securing this latest distinction.
"We didn't get to Stage 6 by accident. We got there
because of 6.0," he says. "We're committed to doing
things the right way, in terms of the quality of patient care
we provide, and 6.0 plays an important role in that. Stage 6
just happens to be a very positive outcome of our larger
effort, although we are still very proud to have received the
national recognition."
6.0
Improves Care, Engages Physicians
While achieving Stage 6 was never an organizational goal for
Doylestown, meeting each one of the patient safety components
of the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model was of the utmost
importance to its executives and care teams. "The
requirements for reaching Stage 6 closely align with the
patient safety goals our care teams are all working toward,"
says Lang. "As we planned to move forward with MEDITECH,
our care providers unanimously agreed that the 6.0 platform
would help us to reach these goals."
In becoming a 6.0 early adopter, Doylestown's primary goal
was to improve all areas of quality. "The embedded
checks and balances within 6.0—including closed-loop
medication administration and on-line physician
documentation—were key to our strategy to reduce
potential errors caused by miscommunication or illegible
orders," says Lang.
6.0's inherent integration was also exceedingly important in
helping Doylestown to achieve their patient care goals.
"You can't do medication reconciliation without an
integrated system," says Scott Levy, MD, chief medical
officer. "The real-time 'handshaking' that comes from a
truly integrated system is critical to what we do. Our
tightly-knit system ensures all care teams are on the same
page throughout the care process, when performing complex
tasks such as reconciling medications, or following through
on orders entered using MEDITECH's Computerized Physician
Order Entry (CPOE) solution."
Levy also believes the intuitive design of 6.0 helped to spur
physician adoption. "Physicians have been easily engaged
by this product," says Levy. "As a result, they are
buying into the concept of clinical automation and the many
advantages it offers."
Keeping the
Momentum Strong
The leadership team at Doylestown, including Lang and Levy,
as well as Director of Applications Carol Muhlbauer, believes
that the facility's Stage 6 designation indicates how well-positioned
it is for achieving future success in many different
areas—including ARRA and Meaningful Use compliance.
"There are, without a doubt, a number of parallels
between Meaningful Use and Stage 6," says Muhlbauer.
"We are confident our Stage 6 accomplishment—and
our advanced 6.0 technology—will help position us to
meet the legislation's provisions."
Going forward, the leadership team is casting an eye toward
Stage 7—although, in keeping with Doylestown's approach,
the emphasis is on further improvements and increased patient
safety, not industry recognition. "We need to have a
fully electronic health record," says Lang. "To get
us one step closer, we're looking to roll out the remaining
advanced clinical automation processes, and to get all
physicians documenting on-line."
As always, Lang remains confident in both his organization's
strategy and the technology platform they have chosen. "We'll
be a Stage 7 hospital by next year," Lang concludes.
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com