Strong Physician Support, Coordinated Care Leads Grand View to Stage 6
(10/27/2010)

When Grand View Hospital (Sellersville, PA), a 209-bed community hospital serving patients of Bucks and Montgomery counties, implemented MEDITECH in 2001, the hospital embarked on a Electronic Health Record (EHR) mission to improve the quality and safety of patient care. Nine years later, the hospital's EHR journey has led Grand View to become MEDITECH's latest customer to achieve Stage 6 Electronic Medical Record adoption recognition from HIMSS Analytics.

"We pride ourselves on pushing the envelope and using our MEDITECH solutions to the fullest," says Jane Loveless, chief information officer at Grand View. "Achieving Stage 6 recognizes our hospital-wide efforts to place the patient first. And everyone here—from our board, senior leadership, medical, and I.T. staff—certainly had a role in helping our organization to reach this important goal."

Integration Coordinates Care
From registration to discharge, care teams at Grand View have a consolidated, global view of the patient's health care data. "Our Stage 6 achievement recognizes our ability to track our patients' progress, both in the inpatient and outpatient care settings," says Loveless. "With our MEDITECH and LSS technologies, we've enabled our care teams to easily review results, physician notes, and patients' allergies and medications, regardless of where they receive their care."

MEDITECH's integrated system is also helping Grand View to improve its care efficiencies across the enterprise. "With MEDITECH, all our hospital departments are connected, which enhances communication and care coordination across the continuum," Loveless says.

"Specifically, our Radiology department has seen some of the most dynamic changes with technology. Now that orders are viewed in our scheduling system, and x-rays are sent via our PACS system, the ordering physician is seeing the x-ray before the patient returns home from their appointment at the hospital. That wouldn't have been possible without MEDITECH's integration."

Physicians Leading the Way
Loveless credits the strong support from Grand View's physicians as a key component of their Stage 6 achievement. "Our physicians understand and appreciate the patient safety benefits that information technology brings to health care," she says. "While initially there was some hesitation, our physicians now see the impact I.T. has on eliminating errors and enhancing communication."

For several years, physicians at Grand View have been using MEDITECH's Physician Documentation (PDoc) to track and view progress notes in real-time. The physician champion advisory committee—led by David Travis, DO—has been a strong force in helping to drive staff support. Loveless notes: "There was so much interest in Physician Documentation, we had physicians not yet LIVE with PDoc coming to us, eager to have the solution rolled out to them!"

Furthermore, the Obstetrics department is pointing the way toward a paperless future for Grand View. "Our OB department is completely paperless except for the birth certificates," Loveless says. "As we look ahead, our next step is to begin creating a completely electronic environment across the entire hospital. The journey continues!"

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