Doylestown Hospital Goes LIVE with MEDITECH's Advanced Clinical Functionality
(8/20/2007)

Sharing MEDITECH's belief that a complete, easily accessible on-line record of patient medications is critical to ensuring safe and quality care, Doylestown Hospital (Doylestown, PA) recently became MEDITECH's first MAGIC customer to go LIVE with its newly enhanced electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR) Desktop software as part of the new 5.6 Release.

"Knowing we are the first in the world to use it is exciting," states Carolyn Muhlbauer, Doylestown's eMAR project coordinator. "Going LIVE with eMAR was the first step toward our goal of having a fully integrated electronic medical record. We needed this first piece to solidify physician acceptance of technology within our organization, and now we also have the foundation for adding on the other MEDITECH Advanced Clinicals in their latest 6.0 Release."

Physicians and Nurses Agree: eMAR is Making Care Delivery Safer and More Streamlined
Within weeks of going LIVE, Doylestown health care providers are confident the software is already doing its job by increasing patient safety within their organization. "Clinicians are seeing fantastic results in transcription and catching errors before they happen, such as wrong medication, wrong patient, and wrong dose," explains Muhlbauer. "They are also experiencing better workflow, more accurate lists, clearer documentation, and improved communication among physicians and nurses."

Perhaps most exciting from an ease-of-use perspective is the new display in the eMAR. "Physicians are very impressed with the desktop view," says Muhlbauer. "Everything on the screen, including the display colors, simply makes sense to them. Everything reads the way a clinician orders medications and the way a physician writes them." She also notes physicians like being able to view the medication and patient information on-line without having to contact a nurse or find a piece of paper for more clarification.

From a nursing point-of-view, the end users were surprised to find out eMAR was easier to learn than expected, according to Muhlbauer. "Our nurses love eMAR," she says. "They have mobile carts which they can bring to the patient's bedside. Nurses are using wireless Bluetooth scanners to scan medication first, then the patient's bar code; they then administer the medication and save the order to the system." And similar to the physicians, Doylestown's nurses were equally thrilled with the ease-of-use and the readability of the screens.

Fully Embracing the eMAR: Implementation a Smooth Experience for All
How well did the eMAR implementation go at Doylestown? "Just two days after go-LIVE, nurses required no further assistance," states Muhlbauer. Clearly a successful process, the implementation approach included careful planning and a solid core team. "Our eMAR core team was made up of nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and MIS staff," says Muhlbauer. "The core team trained 40 'superusers,' who in turn, trained 400 users."

In addition to utilizing a superuser approach, Doylestown also benefited from rolling out the software in pilot units first. "We first installed eMAR in our Interventional Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery units before going LIVE throughout the entire organization," says Muhlbauer. "It was a great feeling to see it LIVE after so much hard work and effort."

Doylestown Spoke and MEDITECH Listened: eMAR Redesign Incorporates Customer Feedback
Doylestown's hand in shaping the enhanced eMAR provides just one shining example of MEDITECH's reputation for highly valuing customer feedback during the software development process. Their core team worked actively with MEDITECH's Service, Implementation, and Development teams to make the eMAR desktop a dynamic tool for all future customers.

As an early adopter, it was crucial for the project to be well received by Doylestown's senior administration as well as their clinicians and physicians, according to Muhlbauer. "We're thrilled to have everyone on board," she says. "We have full acceptance and support from our senior hospital administration. Everyone sees that it was time well spent. It's all going very smoothly."

While other customers will follow their lead with future eMAR implementations, Doylestown continues to communicate and work with MEDITECH on a weekly basis on the eMAR. Together, both parties have been discussing issues and suggestions for improving the software even further.

"We have two strong teams working together. We all have been making great use of communication, time, and resources to accomplish so much. It's the reason why the eMAR redesign was such a huge success," says Patricia Bourne, manager of development at MEDITECH. "Doylestown helped pave the way for other sites to transform their quality of care using this great patient safety tool."

For more information about Doylestown's success with eMAR, check out this recent Fox newsclip available for on-line viewing.

 

About Doylestown Hospital
Doylestown Hospital (Doylestown, PA) is a comprehensive, community-focused health care facility serving patients and families in the northern suburban communities of Philadelphia. From its inception as a 14-bed emergency and maternity hospital, Doylestown has grown into a regional health care resource encompassing more than 500 acute and long-term care beds in three locations: Doylestown Hospital, Pine Run Health Care Center, and Pine Run Lakeview. Doylestown is MEDITECH's first MAGIC customer to go LIVE with the electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR) Desktop software.

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