Reporters Witness Stage 6 Success during Swedish Covenant Hospital's Health I.T. Tour
(4/16/2009)

On April 7th, the Emergency Department at Swedish Covenant Hospital (Chicago, IL), received a patient experiencing chest and abdominal pain. This might have been a routine occurrence for the busy ED, however, "Jane" was no ordinary patient. With reporters from Advance, American Medical News, MedExchange, and Everything Channel closely following her progress, she might have been mistaken for a celebrity. But in fact, "Jane" was the hospital's fictitious case study, used to give the national press a first-hand look into how Swedish Covenant uses I.T. to improve patient care.

This event was part of a week-long I.T. blitz in the Chicago area, as the HIMSS National Conference and Exhibition was in full swing for health care organizations and vendors from across the country. Swedish Covenant was selected by HIMSS this year to conduct a special I.T. tour for reporters, showing how their Stage 6-recognized EHR adoption has improved clinical workflows and patient experiences.

"Swedish Covenant is proud to be one of only 35 hospitals in the nation to have achieved Stage 6 EMR adoption," says Mark Newton, president and CEO. "We are dedicated to seeing our patients benefit from a fully paperless and interoperable care environment."

During the tour, medical staff from the ED, Lab, Pharmacy, and Cardiac Telemetry departments diagnosed and treated "Jane," based on the information passing through the MEDITECH system from department to department. Caregivers demonstrated the benefits of completing tasks electronically, by using wireless technologies to send and receive "Jane's" orders, as well as view her x-rays. They were also able to scan her patient wristband as a safety check, as she moved throughout the care continuum.

"We compared each step of our current care process with what we used to do back when we were documenting everything on paper, and the difference is remarkable," says CIO Karen Sheehan. "Since 1991, when we first began implementing electronic medical records, our goal has been to improve patient safety and quality--and we have seen some very dramatic improvements in both areas. CPOE in particular has made us more efficient and safer, and our physicians are definitely noticing it."

But Swedish Covenant did not restrict their unique I.T. walkthrough just to a select few. Anyone interested could follow the tour on-line via Twitter, where hospital staff posted short messages and photos for public view, every 10 minutes.

"As we all know, getting the word out about information technology's role in health care is particularly important today, especially in light of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)," Sheehan says. "We truly appreciate that HIMSS chose Swedish Covenant Hospital as the host for this media tour, and we're excited that the media is helping us share our progress and advance public understanding of these issues."

For more information about Swedish Covenant's success as a paperless health care environment, check out this story from a recent issue of the Chicago Sun-Times.

 

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