Physical therapy (PT) students at Northeastern
University's Bouve College of Health Science now have the
opportunity to take their learning process well beyond the
pages of their textbooks, with Bouve's continuing partnership
with MEDITECH. Information technologies provided by MEDITECH
and its business allies allow students enrolled in the PT
program to gain first-hand experience with state-of-the-art I.T.
tools, as they expand their knowledge and prepare for careers
as health care providers.
This effort was
spearheaded by Dr. Maura Iversen, professor and chair of
physical therapy, together with Isabel Cunha-Vasconcelos,
director of corporate & foundation relations and research
advancement, Bouve College, and the MEDITECH team.
During a recent two-day introduction to their MEDITECH
software, the physical therapy faculty and students assessed
a patient via video on a projector along with images within
the Electronic Medical Record (EMR), and documented their
findings into the system. This session took place within the
college's new virtual PT lab, which is equipped with MEDITECH's
software running on Dell laptops that sit on ACS MediHealth
mobile carts.
The program's instructors believe that gaining experience in
documenting electronically and compiling a complete and
concise chart--on mobile carts like the type they may use at
a hospital or other health care facility--will give their
students an edge in the industry even before they earn their
degrees.
"A lot of people can do a manual muscle test, but
putting together assessments and creating goals and a plan of
care is essential for a doctorate," says Susan Lowe, PT,
DPT, MS, GCS, associate clinical professor, department of
physical therapy. "The opportunity for these students to
synthesize information in one central place and in a real-life
situation puts them well ahead of their peers in this field."
Student Stephanie Parsons agrees that the exposure to I.T.
has prepared her well for her clinical career. "I
absolutely think this program helps me, both as a student and
as a professional," she says. "By the time I begin
working as a physical therapist, I'll be able to focus my
attention fully on the patient evaluation process, because I'll
already be comfortable with using electronic notetaking
systems."
A Unique
Opportunity . . .
Most of the third and fourth year students attending the PT
lab have participated in a co-op where they have been
introduced to an EMR, but have not yet had the chance to
document plans of care or goals. This lab exposes them to
these new areas of documentation, and gives them full
exposure to a functional electronic medical record.
"PCS helps the students learn the proper medical
language used when documenting in an EMR, and they're exposed
to a very different thought process when moving through the
necessary screens," says Lowe. "I know we'll see an
improvement in their critical thinking skills with
documenting electronically."
The Physical Therapy department faculty also expect to see
huge improvements in the students' documentation skills, as
they become accustomed to using an EMR instead of paper
records. "On paper, there's a natural tendency to write
too broadly and generally. With PCS, the proper medical
terminology is needed to navigate the electronic medical
record; it forces students to enter complete data within a
certain time frame, and to do it objectively," adds Lowe.
"The EMR prompts students to document details which
likely would have been left out on paper. In just a couple of
days, our MEDITECH software has already provided numerous
teachable moments to help prepare students for real life
experiences."
As the students become more comfortable using the system, the
students are also likely to improve on the timeliness of
their documentation while still maintaining quality. "They'll
be treating their documentation as in a real-life situation,
where you take the time to enter the documentation at the
point of service," says Lowe. "I don't think we'll
be seeing them coming back at midnight to finish, like
college students tend to do with many assignments."
. . . That's
Also Great for Instructors
Prior to documenting electronically, PT faculty spent a lot
of time creating paper cases and paper charts for the classes.
With MEDITECH's assistance, the department was able to go
paperless and eliminate unnecessary work for the instructors.
"Converting our paper cases to electronic versions was seamless with the help of MEDITECH staff, such as PCS Supervisor Laura Spurr. Over a series of meetings from March to July, we were able to recreate all the PT curriculum cases in an electronic format," says Dr. Iversen.
"We are
looking forward to launching electronic records in every PT
professional course this year, to simulate the clinical
environment and allow students to document in real time."
Lowe adds that paper cases were always hard to review in
class with students, and hard to grade as well. The move to
electronic cases has changed all of that.
"At the
end of class, we're now able to show the documentation on a
projection screen, to learn from each other and even compare
our results," she says.
Planning
for Expansion
As Northeasten's PT department looks forward to continuing
its I.T. expansion in the months ahead, Dr. Iversen praises
the Bouve administrative team as well as MEDITECH for their
interdisciplinary efforts.
"None of
this would have been possible without everyone's
contributions and support," she says. "I am
presently working with our nursing, pharmacy and health
sciences faculty to share cases and develop a repository of
medical cases for our students. As we continue to plan for a
high fidelity simulation center at Bouve, electronic medical
records will be the cornerstone of this endeavor."
The collaboration between MEDITECH and Northeastern
University will expand once again this Fall, when the school
goes LIVE with its Pharmacy software. Stay tuned!
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com