Critical Access Hospitals Enhance Rural Care with MEDITECH
(10/16/2007)

Almost one-third of the hospitals in the United States have received Critical Access Hospital status from the states in which they are located. These facilities play essential roles within their communities, serving patients who would otherwise not be able to easily access medical care. The Critical Access designation ensures that such institutions have the financial support to continue providing safe, reliable access to patients who live in these regions.

Every state now has its own unique criteria for hospitals to meet this status, in addition to national standards set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As the leading HCIS vendor in the U.S., with 27% of the market share, many MEDITECH customers are Critical Access Hospitals. This article is the first in a series profiling how these small, rural facilities are benefiting from the MEDITECH solution.

Two Hospitals, One HCIS: St. Mary's and Clearwater Valley
A one-hour drive on rough roads through the Nez Perce Reservation in North Central Idaho separates St. Mary's Hospital (Cottonwood, ID) from Clearwater Valley Hospital (Orofino, ID). But while geography divides them, these two individual corporations are actually partners through the Benedictine Health System (Duluth, MN), sharing staff as well as other resources.

"Driving between the two hospitals—as well as the various clinics—can be really tough on clinicians and other staff members," says Pam McBride, grants coordinator for both hospitals and project manager of the MEDITECH implementation. "Weather is always a factor out here, whether it's snow in winter, mud in spring, or forest fires in summer."

Although travelling between the facilities can sometimes be difficult, sharing a MEDITECH system has made acquiring I.T. technologies easier for these two Critical Access Hospitals and their affiliated clinics. Under the Benedictine Health System partnership, St. Mary's and Clearwater Valley doubled their purchasing power and implementation resources, an answer for many smaller organizations struggling to provide quality care with limited funds.

And while staffing was so lean it was sometimes hard to pull employees away to help with implementation, McBride says sharing resources enabled the hospitals to withstand temporary staffing issues to get the applications up and running. "Implementing MEDITECH gave us the opportunity to look at our processes and apply best practices," she says. "We also did a lot of cross training, so staff could see how the system functions in other departments."

However, with only 200 employees per hospital, finding staff to train as super users, while at the same time keeping the business running, took some planning. Each department was responsible for training its own staff members, and the trainer was usually either the department manager or super user. The clinics trained their staff in much the same way.

"Employee adoption and usage has been great so far. Nurses enjoy having data at their fingertips, and our physicians are also using the system." says McBride. "All physicians in the partnership have at least dabbled in Patient Care Inquiry (PCI) since the software went LIVE several months ago. It seems the more automation the physicians see, the more they want."

Kelly McGrath, M.D., a physician at the Clearwater Valley Hospital and Clinics, accesses PCI to check medication orders and lab results. "I use MEDITECH in the morning before I round on patients," he says. "It's a good way to see what's already been ordered and what still needs to result out or be ordered."

The Benedictine Health System's affiliated clinics have adapted especially well to utilizing the system. Since all of the clinics use MEDITECH, physicians travelling back and forth between different facilities don't ever have to worry about learning a different system, and can easily retrieve patient data wherever they are in the enterprise.

"If a patient presents in the ED, the physician can access lab results and historical values, regardless of the clinic that collected the information, right in PCI," says McBride. "There would be no way to get that information if it was on paper."

 

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