Johns
Hopkins Bayview One Step Closer to a Paperless Environment with Stage
6 Recognition
Johns Hopkins
Bayview has proudly joined the growing ranks of MEDITECH customers who
have achieved the prestigious Stage 6 Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
adoption recognition from HIMSS Analytics. Achieving Stage 6 means
that Johns Hopkins Bayview is one step closer to having all patient
records available electronically.
According to Andrew
Frake, senior director of information services, Johns Hopkins
Bayview's journey to a paperless environment would not be possible
without the collaboration of many departments at the Medical Center
and throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine. "Whether it was incorporating
basic lab data in electronic form, using technology to dispense
medications or having a majority of our inpatient documentation in
electronic format, a lot of people came together to make this a
success," he says. "Our transition to an EMR environment confirms
our commitment to providing safe and quality patient care."
The Medical Center began its quest for electronic medical records in
2003 when it implemented MEDITECH's Health Care Information System
that streamlines patient information. At the time, few applications
were included in the new system—Admissions, Billing/Accounts
Receivable, Scheduling, Medical Records, Pharmacy, Laboratory, and
Radiology. Since then, additional MEDITECH products have been added,
allowing health care professionals to access patient data and make
decisions based on complete and up-to-date information. "Doctors can
pull up patients' lab results and review them on-screen in their
offices and then enter orders based on those results," explains
Frake, adding,"Other health care providers can enter notes or easily
document when a hospitalized patient received their last doses of
medication."
The next step to a fully paperless environment is to have a system in
place where the patient data stored in EMRs can be shared with other
health care facilities—and it may happen sooner rather than later.
Johns Hopkins Medicine will participate in CRISP (Chesapeake Regional
Information System for our Patients), the Maryland health information
exchange network that will enable hospitals, insurance companies and
health care providers to securely share information about patients
throughout Maryland.
"Participating in this network doesn't just make sense for health
care providers, but also for the patient," says Amy Knight, M.D.,
hospitalist, Collaborative Inpatient Medicine Service, and medical
advisor, information services. "If a doctor doesn't have any
previous knowledge about a patient, it would be extremely helpful to
be able to go to a computer and pull up his or her medical history. It
brings us up-to-date quickly and enables us to provide the best and
safest health care based on his or her needs."