Our Latest
Stage 6 Customer: Capital Region Medical Center
By setting achievable goals and focusing on staff collaboration,
Capital Region hits an important landmark on its journey to
excellence.
Back
in 2005, when Capital Region Medical Center (Jefferson City, MO)
selected MEDITECH's Client/Server system, they had two long-term
goals in mind: improve patient safety and achieve a fully paperless
environment at their 100-bed, rural health care facility. The
hospital's board and administration knew that with a more efficient
electronic process, they could get where they wanted to be in terms
of patient care and technology. And according to Jason Cecil,
project management professional (PMP) and CIO, the MEDITECH system
has helped Capital Region to do exactly that—as
well as secure Stage 6 EMR recognition from HIMSS Analytics.
"We've long been
committed to creating safer systems for improved patient
outcomes," says Cecil. "Over the years, we've been
involved in numerous quality and safety initiatives, including the
Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign (to
reduce patient mortality rates). Reaching Stage 6 reaffirms that
we're doing the right things to achieve our goals and serve
patients."
Improving
Patient Outcomes Through Collaboration
Cecil believes that both executive- and physician-level
support have been crucial to their success. "The encouragement
we've gotten from our Administrative Council, executives, and
physicians has been invaluable, and we were very fortunate to have
their commitment from the start," he says.
"We knew from
past experiences with other software vendors how important it is for
all levels of the organization to collaborate on patient safety
projects, including I.T. implementation. By working together, and
soliciting physician feedback throughout the duration of the
project, we were able to get everyone on the same page and secure
the buy-in we needed to move forward."
Strong leadership, support, and teamwork got most physicians on
board with going electronic, but Capital Region ultimately secured
organization-wide compliance by setting a firm printing deadline.
"In order to stop
printing and help our organization move toward a fully paperless
environment, we came up with the 'drop-dead date' strategy,"
says Cyndi Hake, RN, clinical analyst at Capital Region Medical
Center. "When there was no incentive for logging into the
system, some care providers would go months at a time without
accessing their patients' information electronically. Instead, they
opted for paper charts. But this strategy changed the way we worked
and, although we experienced some resistance early on, we stood our
ground and our physician adoption rates have been high ever
since."
Having a high rate of
physician adoption has certainly helped Capital Region to reach its
patient safety goals more quickly, says Hake. "All of our OB
physicians, pediatricians, and a percentage of other physicians are
now entering orders electronically," she says. "In order
to bring all physicians LIVE, we are taking the 'one physician at a
time' approach."
Looking Ahead,
Offering Advice
Providers at Capital Region have started noticing major
improvements in care delivery, now that MEDITECH's Advanced
Clinicals are in place. "Because all clinical documentation is
accessible in one place within the Electronic Medical Record (EMR),
our workflows and interdisciplinary communication are much
improved," says Hake. "MEDITECH's Bedside Verification
(BV) solution, in particular, has proven to be a critical component
in helping us reach our patient safety goals. We are able to close
the loop on medication errors and ensure the 'five rights' for our
patients. Everyone is very pleased with our progress towards
clinical excellence."
To other health care facilities
on the path to Stage 6, Cecil recommends committing to a thoughtful,
well-organized approach. "Today, incentive deadlines are
tempting organizations to rush projects along rather than take their
time and utilize the system to its full potential," he says.
"Changing workflows overnight will have a detrimental effect—it's
really a several-year commitment of time and resources in order to
be successful."
Even though Capital Region has
made exceptional strides in patient safety by reaching Stage 6,
Cecil says the hospital has no plans to rest on its laurels.
"It's a wonderful time to be part of health care and we are
extremely proud of our progress. But we're very aware that many of
the criteria for achieving Stage 6 are similar to those the
government requires for ARRA," he notes. "That being said,
we feel we are now well positioned for stimulus funding, and have
already set our sights on qualifying for Stage 7. It's a
never-ending journey."