Executive
Leadership, Integrated HCIS Leads Parkview Adventist to Stage
6
(12/9/2008)
Parkview Adventist Medical Center (Brunswick,
ME) has become the fourth MEDITECH customer to achieve the
prestigious Stage 6 Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption
recognition from HIMSS Analytics. Coming on the heels of
MEDITECH customers St. Agnes Healthcare (Baltimore, MD),
Citizens Memorial Healthcare (Bolivar, MO), and Watertown
Memorial Medical Center (Watertown, WI), Parkview Adventist
joins just 22 other hospitals nationwide which have achieved
Stage 6.
"Achieving Stage 6 is very rewarding for our staff and
executives. We are honored the nation looks to us as a leader
in health care I.T. adoption," says Bill McQuaid,
assistant vice president and chief information officer at
Parkview Adventist. "We also take special pride in being
the smallest hospital to-date (at 55-beds) to reach Stage 6."
Integrated
System Makes Stage 6 Possible for Small, Rural Hospital
McQuaid credits the hospital's integrated MEDITECH Health
Care Information System (HCIS) for making Stage 6 a reality.
"Having a truly integrated HCIS is especially important
for a small hospital without a large I.T. budget to work with,"
says McQuaid. "Working with one vendor and one EMR, our
physicians and staff are able to deliver care more
efficiently. All patient data is available on demand, at our
care teams' fingertips—regardless of whether they are on
the hospital floor, in the physician's office, or at home."
Executive
Leadership Key to Staff Buy-In
Since implementing MEDITECH in 2005, the executives at
Parkview Adventist have been actively communicating to their
staff the importance of utilizing technology to improve the
quality of care. "Since day one, all of our executives
and Board of Directors have been on the same page in terms of
the hospital's I.T. goals," says President and CEO Ted
Lewis. "The teamwork between I.T., Nursing, ancillaries
and physician practices has been phenomenal." With 100%
physician compliance for utilizing e-Signature, and 65% of
all orders currently entered via Computerized Physician Order
Entry (CPOE), Parkview Adventist has the numbers to prove
staff buy-in has been successful across the organization.
"Not only is the MEDITECH system being used across the
care continuum, but we are often asked by our staff when the
next I.T. project will be coming down the pipeline,"
says McQuaid. "I truly believe this comes from both our
executive leaders fostering buy-in, as well as from our
physicians and staff experiencing first-hand how the MEDITECH
system makes their worklives easier—from the infinite
number of available reports, to the seamless integration
across all applications."
A
Year's Worth of Recognition
Throughout the past year, Parkview Adventist has made
headlines as one of the top health care facilities in the U.S.
We told you about the hospital's Five Star for Inpatient Service award from Avatar International, and
most recently its recognition from InfoWorld for utilizing technology in creative and
innovative ways. Achieving Stage 6 appropriately caps off
Parkview Adventist's impressive year.
"Each and every department at Parkview Adventist is
humbled by the recognition we have received this year,"
says McQuaid. "We've been working really hard to
continually evaluate what the organization can do to improve.
I just hope our success helps to inspire others in the
MEDITECH community—if an organization puts its mind to
it, regardless of its size or I.T. budget, anything is
attainable."
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com