Bothwell Regional Health Center Selects MEDITECH's Fully Integrated System

Bothwell Regional Health Center, a 163-bed facility located in rural Sedalia, Missouri, has selected MEDITECH's Client/Server HCIS to help meet its strategic goal of establishing a streamlined, easy-to-use, and effective process for providers to give quality patient care. "Our strategic goal," according to John Dawes, chief executive officer at Bothwell Regional Health Center, and fellow at the American College of Healthcare Executives, "is to have our community come to recognize Bothwell Regional Health Center as a state-of-the-art facility, with patient-centered care at the forefront, aided by modern technological tools."

"The driving force behind the project was an underlying belief that we, as a regional health center, could find more affordable, effective, easier-to-use, customizable, and scalable software," states Greg Collins, chief information officer at Bothwell Regional Health Center. "We expect the MEDITECH system will meet 95% of the information needs of our patients, physicians, nurses, ancillary staff, financial team, and administration."

The need to maintain a central repository for patient data across an entire health care continuum was another key factor in Bothwell's decision making process. MEDITECH software has the ability to support private practice clinicians with integrated data sets, results reporting, and billing and scheduling of services. "We can have a central repository for patient data across our geographic area, which is a critical improvement during emergencies and after-hour care," says Collins. "The system will eliminate multiple entries of patient data and values, which will save us time."

Reaction from clinicians has been favorable. "The physicians, led by our chief of staff Gregory A. Doak, MD, have been part of this process from the beginning. They recognize the value and benefits associated with MEDITECH," states Dawes.

"MEDITECH improves patient satisfaction by permitting direct scheduling, along with sharing of medical records, radiology images, and laboratory values -- all without waiting for additional input or clarification from physician clinics, and other health partners," continues Collins. "The system also augments financial operations by more accurately capturing charges for services, pharmaceuticals, and procedures."

On a technical level, Collins foresees improvement in security, upgrades, and backups. "Since other vendor systems will no longer be needed, we can reduce annual software maintenance fees and internal costs associated with upgrades to multiple software platforms," he states.

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