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CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY
PROMISES IMPROVED PATIENT CARE
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By Christine
Imbs
It’s no secret. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing. And just as businesses
are embracing information technology to help reduce costs and improve
efficiency, so too is the healthcare industry.
A good of example of this is electronic medical records. Paper records
have always been the standard method for recording patient information
at hospitals, as well as in doctors’ offices, and clinics. Unfortunately,
it’s been far from fool-proof. Things gets lost, or misfiled, or
scattered among doctors in various locations. This means your physician
may have insufficient information about you. And in the case of
an emergency, it can be a matter of life or death.
With electronic medical records, every time you see a physician,
information about your diagnosis, treatments, medications and other
pertinent information, is entered into one record accessible through
a computer system. So whether you’re seeing your general practitioner,
a specialist, or are admitted to the hospital, your complete medical
records are immediately available at the touch of a keyboard.
Several St. Louis healthcare providers are currently working on
various electronic record and IT systems. At Washington University
for example, physicians are behind the drive to go totally electronic.
“Having this system in place will improve our ability to deliver
patient care by giving our faculty physicians real time, instant
access to patient records regardless of where they are,” says James
Crane, M.D., CEO of Washington University Physician’s Faculty Group
Practice. “In our case, our faculty typically teaches and does research.
We have a Center for Advanced Medicine where they see patients.
So they’ll be able to access patient records there as well as from
their academic office, their home or from out of town, day or night,
seven-days-a-week.”
Currently, the university’s system is up and fully running in ENT
and Cardio Thoracic Surgery and teams are working on several other
subspecialties including surgery, neurology, psychology and OB-GYN.
They hope to have the system university-wide by the end of 2008.
JAMES
CRANE M.D., CEO, Washington University Physician’s
Faculty Group Practice |
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“It’s a complex project,” comments Crane. “The way things need to
be documented with each of these subspecialties is different. So
you have to make sure you customize it to meet each of their needs.
But once that’s been accomplished and it’s fully activated, we’ll
see a great improvement in the way we handle patient care.”
Also actively moving in this direction is SSM Health Care. Currently,
they are replacing traditional x-ray films with digital images that
can be instantly accessed from any computer in the hospital or from
a secure site on the Internet. It’s the first phase of Project Beacon
which includes implementation of an electronic medical record system
to begin in early 2008.
“Having patient information at your finger tips dramatically improves
efficiency, which in turn means better patient care,” says Richard
Vaughn, M.D., medical director for Project Beacon. “It’s a tremendous
leap forward.”
Although access to a patient’s complete medical record is important
in all parts of the healthcare system, emergency rooms are where
it is the most critical. At St. Anthony’s Medical Center, ER physicians
are involved in a pilot program with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri,
using the BCBSMo Member Medical History system. This system provides
clinical information on BCBSMo members when they visit the emergency
room.
THOMAS
ROCKERS,
president
& CEO,
St. Anthony’s Medical Center |
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“This pilot program is a perfect example of taking today’s technology
and applying it in an innovative way to provide patient information
in real time to emergency department physicians for their use in
treatment,” says Thomas Rockers, president and CEO of St. Anthony’s
Medical Center.
St. Anthony’s physicians are also employing technology to help fight
lung cancer. Two years ago, a group of specialists, including oncologists,
radiologists, pathologists and thoracic surgeons, formed a Thoracic
Oncology Program to hasten the diagnosis and treatment of cancer
patients. The team meets twice a month to review cases and discuss
the diagnosis and treatment of lung and esophageal cancer patients.
Building on this program, an innovative online version was created
where patient cases are posted onto a restricted computer site seen
only by the physicians. With 24-hour access, each of the specialists
has the opportunity to review the case and offer recommendations
for treatment.
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PAM
CRECELIUS, research coordinator for St. Anthony’s
Oncology Services, discusses a patient case featured
on the physicians’ portal with DR. PETER FONSECA,
thoracic oncologist at St. Anthony’s. |
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“The whole idea in treating cancer is to be prospective, not retrospective,”
says Peter Fonseca, M.D. “The patient doesn’t want to wait for treatment
until all of the physicians have time to meet and discuss the case.
He or she wants surgery within days, not next month. Optimally,
I see a patient in the office today, the case is posted, and in
a couple of days I have everyone’s responses and can begin scheduling
additional testing or treatment.”
Eliminating medication errors is the goal of medical bar coding.
According to an Institute of Medicine report, more than 7,000 deaths
occur each year due to medication errors. To lower this number,
the Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling two years ago requiring
drug makers to use bar codes on medications. This regulation calls
for computer-readable tags on the outside of containers as well
as individual blister-wrapped packages. The FDA believes this will
“allow healthcare professionals to use bar code scanning equipment
to verify that the right drug is given to the right patient at the
right time,” according to the agency’s bar coding rule.
In September 2004, St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield began using
an electronic medical administration and reporting system, or eMAR,
for its inpatients. eMAR uses laptop computers in patient rooms
along with wireless bar code readers. By scanning the patient’s
wristband, caregivers can make sure they not only have the right
patient and right medication, but the right dose, time and method
of administration as well. In addition, all data captured by the
scan and actions taken are immediately stored in the patent’s medication
record.
Taking it one step further is the Sisters of Mercy Health System-St.
Louis, which includes St. John’s Mercy Medical Center. Not only
are they using bar code scanners to assure mediations are administered
properly to the right patients, but they have become their own pharmaceutical
distributor. With a warehouse located in Springfield, Mo., SMHS
stores, repackages, bar codes and distributes all medications used
across the Mercy health system which includes 10 hospitals in four
states and more than 3,000 patient beds.
Remote monitoring of patients is yet another aspect of today’s advanced
technologies that the healthcare industry is beginning to adopt.
Currently, the Mercy health system is installing an electronic intensive
care unit program throughout its hospitals. The eICU technology
uses early warning software and remote monitoring tools to enable
off-site critical care physicians and nurses to support hospital-based
intensive care unit staff.
SHANNON
SOCK,
vice president healthcare solutions,
Sisters of Mercy Health System-St. Louis |
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“We have hospitals in our system that range from very large, sophisticated
places like St. John’s Mercy, to more rural oriented hospitals with
access to fewer specialized clinical resources,” says Shannon Sock,
SMHS vice president healthcare solutions. “Through this technology
we will be able to support the nursing teams out in the field by
providing intensivist coverage and experienced critical care nurses
24/7.”
Mercy’s eICU program will be based at the St. John’s Mercy Medical
Center’s new heart center and will be staffed by the hospital’s
intensivists and critical care nurses. “We hope to have it completely
rolled out by the end of 2007,” Sock says. “Once that happens, we
will be monitoring about 300 beds in four states—Missouri, Kansas,
Arkansas, and Oklahoma.” |
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