Advanced Clinicals Lead to Tangible Improvements, Stage 6 for Phelps County Regional Medical Center
(5/7/2009)

David Dawdy, CIO at Phelps County Regional Medical Center (PCRMC), had seen the headlines about other MEDITECH customers achieving Stage 6 Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption recognition from HIMSS Analytics. Knowing how much his organization had already accomplished with I.T., he wondered how they could reach this prestigious level of automation. But when he visited the HIMSS Analytics Web site to learn more, he saw that PCRMC had already achieved many of the same feats as these other hospitals.

"We were so wrapped up in our own technology utilization goals and improving patient safety that we didn't even realize we had already reached this big milestone," says Dawdy. "Our organization has worked hard over the years to improve patient safety, but fulfilling the requirements of the Stage 6 designation was a pleasant surprise for us."

Establishing a Solid Technology Foundation with MEDITECH
In just under a decade since implementing the MEDITECH system (HCIS), PCRMC has become a leader in the MEDITECH community for their use of the Advanced Clinical products. When the site began its technology journey in 2001, it was important to the executive team to build a strong foundation with MEDITECH's fundamental applications, and then work toward Advanced Clinical technologies.

"This approach worked great for us to encourage early use of the products," says Dawdy. "Once we had a good structure in place, we could start focusing on implementing tools for our clinicians."

By implementing the Advanced Clinicals, PCRMC hoped to further improve patient safety, and also meet the needs of clinicians who wanted to streamline their workflows with electronic documentation. When it came time to get started, the hospital worked closely with clinicians to get their feedback and verify that the new technologies were right for them.

"Everyone at PCRMC—from the executive team, to clinicians, to administrative support—has worked together to help get us to Stage 6," says Dawdy. "We have had such a positive experience implementing technology into our organization, because all of our staff has been on board with our goals since day one."

There was one group in particular which was particularly excited about using advanced technologies—the hospital's physicians.

"Our Physician Advisory Council played a central role in getting us to this point," Dawdy says. "The group was dedicated to improving system utilization by offering feedback to facilitate implementations and setting milestones to better optimize usage of the MEDITECH system."

Overcoming the Hurdles to Stage 6
Because PCRMC had such strong support from their clinicians, they were able to overcome what is considered one of the hardest stages for a health care organization to reach in the HIMSS Analytics model—Stage 5, also known as the closed loop stage. Getting past Stage 5 is often a lot of work and can be a challenge for some organizations, but PCRMC sailed right past this stage due to the commitment of their clinical teams.

"It took a lot of help from our Nursing, Physician Liaison, and Pharmacy departments to move beyond Stage 5," says Dawdy. "The end users really embraced the technology and became advocates for the system because they knew it would improve patient safety and outcomes. MEDITECH provided us with the right solutions to overcome the challenges, and our nurses and pharmacists did the rest."

And the facility has the results to show for it; in only a year and a half since implementing MEDITECH's Bedside Verification solution, nurses are scanning 84% of medications at the bedside. This has not only closed the medication loop to get PCRMC to Stage 6, but also improved patient safety during the medication administration process by reducing needless errors.

"Overall, the high rate of system utilization from clinicians has improved the speed and quality of care," says Dawdy. "Patients are seen and treated faster, and electronic ordering through Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) has improved the accuracy of orders, as well as enabled us to quickly send them where they need to go."

Looking to the Future
Now that PCRMC has achieved Stage 6, what's next for this technology leader? According to Dawdy, business as usual!

"Our motto at PCRMC is that no matter who you are at this hospital, you are only one person away from the patient. So, it's everyone's priority to improve care delivery and make our patients happy," he says.

"Being so focused on our everyday efforts to improve care, it's sometimes hard to be visionary and think of the future goals you want your organization to achieve. Fortunately, with MEDITECH as our partner, we will continue on our path to further expand usage of Advanced Clinicals, and become more interoperable with other health care organizations in our community. It's all about being able to better serve our patients."
 

 

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