Boulder Community Hospital Takes the Leap with 6.0
A longtime MAGIC customer puts its trust in MEDITECH, and starts to make strides towards improving care delivery by implementing the new 6.0 platform.
(4/14/2010)

Boulder Community Hospital (BCH), located in Boulder, CO, found itself at a crossroads when its Board of Directors made the decision to advance the hospital's electronic medical record efforts. A longtime MAGIC customer, the organization was confident in continuing to use MEDITECH as its core Health Care Information System (HCIS), however, many of the staff at BCH did not know about MEDITECH's latest platform, 6.0.

After careful consideration, the consensus among staff members, care teams, and executives was to move forward with 6.0. "We all felt MEDITECH's 6.0 solution offered the advanced functionality that everyone was looking for," says Linda Minghella, chief information officer at BCH. "And while the hospital was aware of the risks of being an early adopter of any new technology platform, everyone believed MEDITECH's advanced software would provide BCH the advanced clinical functionality it had been missing."

MEDITECH's Support Teams Ease Transition to 6.0
BCH's close working relationship with MEDITECH proved to be one of the keys to the hospital's decision for a 6.0 implementation. "Being an early adopter of a new technology has many risks and rewards to take into consideration," notes Minghella. "However, our past experience with MEDITECH's ability to develop and support a solid health care information system gave us the confidence we needed to move forward with 6.0."

According to Krista McClain, project manager at BCH, the hospital was very pleased with the support from MEDITECH's implementation team, particularly Director Suzanne Keane and Manager Lori Ebbs. "Suzanne and Lori worked very closely with us to resolve issues, and helped to ease our transition to 6.0," says McClain. "We appreciate that patient safety issues are always at the top of MEDITECH's priority list. It's good to know that when we report an issue, it will be taken seriously and resolved as quickly as possible."

Minghella agrees that MEDITECH has been very attentive to the organization's needs, working with BCH to ensure the software works well in their hospital environment. "The flexibility of MEDITECH's solutions has been extremely helpful as we make process changes in preparation for our electronic health record. We know that MEDITECH is very committed to its hospitals and to improving the software to suit customers' needs."

Spreading the Word: With 6.0, Change is Coming
From the first day of licensing MEDITECH's 6.0 platform, the team at BCH made a commitment to clearly communicate with care teams and staff on the coming changes. "Migrating from MAGIC to 6.0 is a significant change and it was important to keep the go-LIVE date on target and get the word out to everyone. No one wanted surprises," says Minghella. "We saw the anticipation for 6.0 grow, the closer we got to our LIVE date, as everyone became focused on the transition."

Building on the inspiration from the hospital's Medical Records Director, Norma Ekstrand, BCH nicknamed its implementation project 'NORMA,' standing for 'No One Runs MEDITECH Alone.' "With 'NORMA', our care teams and staff were reminded on a daily basis that the 6.0 implementation was not an I.T. initiative, but an entire hospital initiative," says Minghella. "We wanted our core teams to be comprised primarily of end users, so they could have ownership of their modules and ensure that the system was implemented in a manner that best fit their needs."

In addition to the creative branding of its implementation, BCH developed a wide range of training techniques to gets its physicians on board with 6.0. "Our physician liaison, Drew Currie, worked closely with the physicians and clinical staff to help gear up for the implementation," says Minghella. "Drew held group and one-on-one training with the physicians and physician office staff, and he also created a training DVD using Adobe Captivate—which allowed physicians to learn at their own pace, and within their own schedules."

Persistence Pays Off
Since going LIVE, Boulder's physicians have been very pleased with the updated look and feel of 6.0. "The flattened-out user interface really streamlines their workflows, and our care teams are very pleased with their improved access to patient data," says Minghella. "Our physicians also appreciate being able to view patients' digital x-ray images from MEDITECH, something that was not available for them previously."

In addition, Boulder's physicians are now able to use the MEDITECH system remotely, with the help of Citrix. "The mobility of Citrix makes it convenient for our physicians to access and review patient data in 6.0, outside the walls of the hospital," says Minghella. "For example, prior to go-LIVE, only about 40 of our physicians were e-signing transcribed documents. Since the 6.0 conversion, about 150 physicians are using the e-sign feature and our goal is to have all 400 of our physicians using this capability by April 1st."

With the 6.0 migration behind them, Boulder can now focus its efforts on the implementation of advanced clinical applications early in 2011. "Our long-term partnership with MEDITECH over the last fourteen years helped make the decision to stay with MEDITECH an easy one," concludes Minghella.

MEDITECH
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com