Our Latest Stage 6 Customer: Harrison Memorial Hospital
Harrison Memorial Hospital's integrated MAGIC HCIS improves care processes for physicians, nurses and patients alike.


Caregivers at Harrison Memorial Hospital (Cynthiana, KY), one of MEDITECH's most progressive MAGIC customers, have long used I.T. to impact the quality and safety of patient care. In recent years, we've profiled the hospital's impressive 96% Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) compliance rate, as well as their physicians' ability to streamline care processes through MEDITECH's Physician Care Manager (PCM) solution. With all the progress Harrison Memorial has made, it is no wonder the hospital was curious to see how close they were to reaching Stage 6 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR adoption model.

"We put a call into HIMSS, and we learned that we were only missing the physician documentation requirement on the inpatient side," says Harrison Memorial's I.S. Director Martha Sullivan. "Soon after the call, we started the journey of implementing MEDITECH's Physician Documentation (PDoc) solution in the Nursery. Shortly after going LIVE with inpatient PDoc in December 2010, we re-connected with HIMSS and received the validation call that we achieved Stage 6."

Executive Support Leads to Transformation
Sullivan credits the leadership of the hospital's executives in securing buy-in for I.T. amongst Harrison's clinical staff. "Our CEO, Sheila Currans, is a big supporter of using EHRs to improve the quality and safety of care," she says. "Currans encouraged nurses and physicians to see technology, not just as a mandate, but as a real way to improve outcomes and patients' lives. Her push towards EHRs is one reason why we are a Stage 6 hospital today."

Picking up on Currans' early advocacy of technology, Sullivan has made sure that her staff is aware of how important an integrated system can be to a small hospital. "A heavily mixed I.T. environment leads to inefficient care practices, which our hospital cannot afford to have. With a single MEDITECH solution, we're able to standardize care across the hospital," she says.

"Our physicians and nurses regularly comment on how the system makes their processes more efficient. Efficiency isn't always about saving time, but rather, improving patient safety and satisfaction. With all pertinent patient information captured and stored in a single location, care teams are not wasting time searching for information or ordering unnecessary tests. In addition, allergies, medication, and dosing conflicts are immediately flagged to prevent ordering medications that could cause patient harm. These are a few of the things that have also helped us to reduce the costs of our health care, at the same time that we're improving it."

Nursing Solutions Streamline Care
The nurses' commitment to technology is another key factor in Harrison's Stage 6 achievement. The hospital has implemented MEDITECH's Bedside Verification (BV) solution enterprise-wide--and the nursing staff has taken full advantage of its benefits.

"In the Emergency Department, our barcode scanning percentage rate is in the high 80s to low 90s, and is even higher in the med surg areas," says Sullivan. "Our director of nursing really led the way and inspired clinicians to support this technology."

Clinical Analyst Linda Ring, RN, also believes that high I.T. usage is positively impacting nurses' workflows. "Nurses are really seeing how BV helps to verify the five rights of medication administration. While they know that BV is not meant to speed up the medication administration process, they appreciate the warning messages that pop up and assist in preventing medical errors," she says.

"Furthermore, the status board enables nurses to have a consolidated view of patient information, including lab results and vitals. And it significantly improves our order management processes--making it easy for staff to be alerted of new orders and order changes as well as patient medication needs." In addition, Ring says these alerts and reminders help the nurse keep track of reassessments, as well as specimens that need to be collected.

"The tracker alerts the ED staff to any new orders, and lets them know when orders have been managed by another staff member. It really ensures that our staff are aware of the patient’s status at all times," says Ring. "Staff are also alerted with reminders for reassessments, related to medications and rechecks."

Patients Notice the Difference I.T. Makes
Not surprisingly, patients are also taking notice of the widespread utilization of technology at Harrison Memorial. "We've had patients tell us that they appreciate how their information is already in the system when they step into the hospital--they no longer have to answer the same questions every time they come in," says Sullivan. He notes that patients also comment on the nurses' scanning of their barcoded bracelet and medications, to verify the correct medications are being administered.

"We rely on our I.T. system to provide us with the information we need when the patient steps through the door," Sullivan concludes. "We're very excited about our future with MEDITECH, as we move forward in our EHR efforts."