Small
Rehab Hospital Helen Hayes Delivers Big on Care with MEDITECH
HCIS
(5/21/2009)
Spinal cord injury, congestive heart failure,
traumatic brain injury, stroke—these are among the most
critical and long-term conditions patients must face. And
these are also the most common ailments rehabilitation
provider Helen Hayes Hospital (West Haverstraw, NY) helps its
patients recover from every day. The challenges faced by this
organization are many, not only because of the complexity of
treatment regiments, but also due to the budgetary
limitations associated with being a small, state-run facility.
But Helen Hayes—whose reputation draws patients from
nearby New York City, the surrounding states, as well as
across the country—has found a way to thrive despite
these difficulties, with the support of their leading-edge
Health Care Information System from MEDITECH.
"Using our MEDITECH system, all patients are tracked on-line
from the minute they arrive at the hospital, and their
information is readily available to our medical, therapy, and
nursing staff during subsequent admissions or outpatient
visits," says Virgil Ennis, chief information officer.
"We're small, but we're accomplishing many of the same
feats as larger organizations. In many cases, we're able to
do things even better."
Tailoring
the MEDITECH System to Fit a Unique Care Setting
Even though Helen Hayes is strictly a rehabilitation hospital,
the organization has found that the MEDITECH system fits in
well with their unique care environment. "While MEDITECH
does not have a strict rehabilitation solution, we have found
the flexibility of the MEDITECH HCIS to meet our I.T. needs,"
says Ennis. "Both MEDITECH and our staff at Helen Hayes
have done a great job working together to tailor the system,
helping us to move in the direction of becoming a completely
paperless environment."
In particular, Helen Hayes is extremely pleased with its
Patient Care System (PCS) and Enterprise Medical Record (EMR)
solutions, which have been crafted to meet the organization's
outpatient requirements for registration, clinic visits, and
ongoing therapy visits.
"With our system, everything is documented on-line—starting
when the appointment is scheduled in the system, to the time
the patient is seen by the physician, nurse or therapist,"
says Ennis. "In PCS, we can capture the patient's past
medical history as well as the nursing and therapy
assessments and ongoing progress notes. All this information
seamlessly flows to the EMR, ensuring all clinicians have a
complete snapshot of prior visits. In addition, we can now
generate reports from the EMR that can be sent to our
referral sources and 3rd party payors to ensure timely
communication and reimbursement."
Improving
Efficiency without Paper
While Helen Hayes is on track to becoming completely
paperless, they did have to overcome a number of barriers
before getting to where they are today. One of the obstacles
they faced prior to implementing PCS version 5.5.5 was
finding a way to recall therapy and nursing documentation
from visit to visit for their large outpatient population.
"Before implementing PCS 5.5.5, each patient would
receive a new account number each month, or in many cases,
each visit to the hospital," explains Lori MacLeod, I.T.
clinical manager. "However, information could not be
recalled from visit to visit, which meant that our clinicians
and nurses had to re-enter that information into the system
each time in order to generate progress reports. This process
was inefficient and time-consuming."
However, since implementing PCS 5.5.5, patient information—including
past medical history, assessments, and progress reports—can be
recalled from visit to visit. "Now we have the most up-to-date
information accessible during each patient's visit,
regardless of the account number," says Jean Craig, RN.
"For nursing staff, this is invaluable. Before using
MEDITECH, we would have to rewrite a problem and medication
list each time the patient visited the clinic. Now we can
easily recall information from a prior visit and update it as
appropriate."
Ennis agrees that recalling patient information for
outpatients is the most noticeable advantage to having the
MEDITECH system. "Our team of rehabilitation
professionals can recall information from the initial
evaluation when a patient first comes to Helen Hayes, to the
most recent visit—whether it was last week or several
months ago. We can actively track the progress of the patient,
ensuring all decisions our clinicians make are leading the
patient on the most direct path to recovery."
Creating Care
Standards for Inpatients
Also important for a rehabilitation facility with multiple
disciplines is the development and monitoring of patient
assessments and care plans. The MEDITECH system has enabled
Helen Hayes to create customized care plans for each patient
diagnosis and each discipline, ensuring all care teams are
adhering to the highest standard of care.
"As soon as the physician assesses the patient and the
diagnosis is entered in MEDITECH, the admitting nurse
generates a plan of care, which determines a course of action
to be followed by the appropriate therapists and nursing
staff," says MacLeod. "Based on the plan, the
system will automatically populate the care teams' worklists
with the necessary tasks.
"In addition, users can add or remove items from the
list, which enables clinicians to customize care for each
individual patient. We have also created customized rounds
reports that reflect the patient's progress and outcomes in
all areas of performance. These reports are critical for
insurance reimbursement."
With patient records oftentimes shared among medical staff,
Helen Hayes credits its MEDITECH EMR for ensuring there is no
delay in accessing the medical record. "With the EMR,
there is no guesswork with determining what information is
documented," says Anna Kelly, RN. "Everything in
the EMR is legible and time-stamped, ensuring we are all
reviewing the most accurate and up-to-date information.
Everyone is on the same page, which is especially important
for our facility, which may see the same patient many times.
In addition, more than one care provider can access the
record at once to either view or enter information."
Expanding
on the MEDITECH HCIS
While Helen Hayes has proven their success with allocating I.T.
to deliver quality care, the hospital continues to seek new
avenues to strengthen I.T. utilization across care teams—such as
tightening the medication loop for patients receiving care in
the inpatient setting. The organization will be implementing
MEDITECH's electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR)
in June, and is also planning to license the Bedside
Verification solution. In addition, the hospital is on board
to implement MEDITECH's Scanning and Archiving solution in
2010, which will enable the organization to become 100%
paperless.
"One of the biggest lessons we have learned with
MEDITECH is that it is not a stagnant system," says
Ennis. "We are always working alongside MEDITECH,
seeking out and finding valuable opportunities to evolve both
as an organization and as care providers."
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com