New Medical Center To Use Electronic Medical Records
Hospital's Digital Conversion First Venture For Sisters Of Mercy Health System
Last updated Tuesday, November 13, 2007 6:34 PM CST in News
By Brandon Marcello
THE MORNING NEWS
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ROGERS -- Medical records will go digital and paperless at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers upon its opening in March.
The implementation of electronic medical records at the Rogers Mercy Medical Center will be the first venture into an up-to-the-minute digital interface for the 18 hospitals of the five-state Mercy Health System.
The software will integrate medication safety, allergy alerts, historical lab results, proactive alerts for preventive medication, patient summaries and billing records into one documented digital record, said George Flynn, chief executive officer of Mercy Health System of Northwest Arkansas.
The software's most important aspect will be a feature alerting doctors of a patient's drug allergies and an added filter alerting physicians of drugs that may interact with current prescriptions when ordering medicines, Flynn said.
An estimated 98,000 hospitalized patients die each year because of medical errors such as prescribing wrong medicine, according to the Institute of Medicine, Flynn said.
"Hospital records (now) are episodic," Flynn said. "With this, it's longitudinal and always up to date."
The system will be accessible at fixed kiosk locations in the hospital and in physicians' offices at the adjacent Mercy Physician Plaza on the new campus set to open near New Hope Road and Interstate 540.
The software, Hyperspace, was developed by Epic Systems Corp. and will slowly be implemented at the other 17 acute care hospitals in the Sisters of Mercy Health System through 2011, said Kyle Weaver, Mercy Health System of Northwest Arkansas communications specialist. The cost will be about $400 million for the entire Sisters of Mercy Healthy System, Flynn said.
The system is expected to be operational at Mercy Medical Center in March, while a February date is scheduled for implementation at the Mercy Physician Plaza, Flynn said.
Doctors and nurses will have access to medical records, and can prioritize patients' conditions on real-time graphical displays, said Kathryn McClellan, vice president of clinical systems for Sisters of Mercy Health System.
Doctors on call will have access to the same records through secure Internet connections at home, said Michael Potts, a practicing obstetrician. The records accessed off site will have "strong passwords" to prevent outsiders from accessing private logs, Flynn said. An Internet-based system allowing patients to access their own information may be implemented in the future.
Work has been under way for six months to process and transfer thousands of medical records logged in digital interfaces and paper files at St. Mary's Hospital to the new Epic computer system, said Catherine Kite, vice president and accountable executive of the implementation of electronic medical records.
"The biggest problem facing us is training the staff," Kite said.
The system will not be accessible from other hospitals outside the Sisters of Mercy Health System, Flynn said. Special permission will be needed by other hospitals in the Sisters of Mercy Health System when requesting access to a patient's file in Rogers.
AT A GLANCE
Implementation
Epic Systems Corp. first introduced a Windows-based electronic medical record software product called EpicCare in 1992. St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers implemented an electronic medication dispensing program in 2004 and will implement the Epic medical records system in March when the Mercy Medical Center opens.
Source: Staff Report
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