High-Tech Patient Tracker Puts Hospital on the Map
(10/19/2006)

Culpeper Regional Hospital (Culpeper, VA) has been getting a lot of attention in the press lately for getting rid of their traditional Emergency Department whiteboard and installing a state-of-the-art plasma screen to help track patient flow. The new 50-inch plasma screen displays the MEDITECH Patient Tracker, and was recently installed just one year after going LIVE with MEDITECH's Emergency Department Management (EDM) application. Culpeper's high-tech solution to the whiteboard means clinicians at this small, rural hospital now always have the most up-to-date information right in front of them.

The time savings has also been substantial. "Before the plasma screen was installed, staff would first write the information on the whiteboard, then enter the same information into the computer. Now there's no duplication of effort. What we enter into the system is immediately displayed in the Public Tracker on the plasma screen," says Gracie Gillis, staff nurse.

The Public Tracker, one of several trackers in use at Culpeper's ED, enables staff to manage patient flow more effectively in a hectic, fast-paced environment. An automatic scrolling feature enables staff to view all ED patients. By indicating event status and other pertinent information, the Public Tracker helps keep clinicians informed of newly available data, and lets them know what they need to do next. A glance at the plasma screen gives physicians and nurses information such as the patient's room number and priority, as well as the nurse responsible for the patient. Also, the Public Tracker uses color-coded indicators for new orders, available results, outstanding medication orders, and more. In compliance with HIPAA regulations, only the patient's initials are shown; no chief complaints or medical record numbers are listed. And, since the Public Tracker is "display only," results are not accessible.

But what happens when clinicians need to access and document patient data? Physicians, nurses, and other clinicians have access to a full Clinical Tracker when logged on to PCs or computers-on-wheels (COWs) in treatment rooms and in designated work areas. Unlike the Public Tracker, the Clinical Tracker provides access to results, vital signs, reports, and other data. By simply clicking on the color-coded indicator in the Clinical Tracker, the clinician is brought directly to the information needed. Culpeper is currently tweaking the data fields in their Clinical Tracker to maximize its effectiveness.

"I hadn't used MEDITECH before, and was really surprised by how much we could personalize the patient tracker to meet our needs. Other systems don't allow for that kind of flexibility. It's a standard function to not only choose the fields we want to display, but how they're ordered on the tracker," says Rose Whitehurst, ED director.

The staff in the Culpeper ED have also tailored Patient Trackers for specific ED locations and roles. There are location-based trackers for the waiting room and Fast Track, and roles-based trackers for ancillary technicians and registration staff. A "View All" tracker, which includes the patient's name and location, is really helpful when we get calls from family members, says Gillis.

Although Whitehurst is thrilled with the benefits the ED has already derived from their Patient Trackers, she has set even more goals for its second year of use. Culpeper plans to track its patients who "leave without being seen" or leave "against medical advice," and decrease these numbers by 50% with the help of MEDITECH's EDM. Before the application was implemented, these patients accounted for six to eight percent of ED visits.

Another important goal--one that Culpeper hopes to reach in the next nine months--is a paperless ED. Because the nurses use the Clinical Tracker in conjunction with Nursing Documentation, all their processes are completely automated. "Nursing documentation is a big hit," says Gillis, "so the nurses are already paperless. The physicians are almost there, too."

"Now that the nurses are paperless, it only makes sense that we go paperless throughout the ED," adds Whitehurst. "We can't be half electronic and half paper-based. It's too taxing. We look forward to working toward this next step using MEDITECH's EDM."

About Culpeper Regional Hospital
Culpeper Regional Hospital, a nonprofit health care organization, provides comprehensive services to communities in the Blue Ridge Mountain region. This 70-bed acute care hospital has been a MEDITECH customer since 1997, and went LIVE with our MAGIC Emergency Department Management (EDM) application in August 2005.

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