EDIS Integrates with Legacy and Ambulatory EMRs

By Justin Chang, MD
Posted on: December 30, 2009

Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital, a large, urban teaching medical center located in Denver, serves as the main referral hospital for the half million members of Kaiser Permanente of Colorado, as well as its network of neighborhood clinics. For several years, Exempla Saint Joseph's Emergency Department (ED) -- one of the most high-risk, high-revenue generating areas of the hospital -- struggled to implement an electronic medical record (EMR) system that met its needs and integrated with Exempla's existing MEDITECH hospital information system and Kaiser's Epic ambulatory EMR system.

Avoid delays

To avoid further delay in going electronic, the department's leaders decided to implement an emergency department information system (EDIS). They specifically looked for a solution that would easily integrate with other Exempla clinical applications while meeting the needs of the fast-paced environment. The goal was two-fold:

1. improve communications between outpatient and inpatient care providers and
2. provide unprecedented access to patient clinical information.

After researching several options, a group of Exempla ED nursing staff and Kaiser physicians decided to implement Picis ED PulseCheck. It interoperates with Exempla's existing EMR system and Kaiser's ambulatory EMR system. Exempla's CIO, IT department and physician champion, along with support staff and a physician-adoption consultant from Picis, led the deployment and successfully transformed an ED that had been entirely paper-dependent for its 125-year history into an ED that is nearly 100 percent electronic. The benefits were immediate:

• Instant access to patient information. ED physicians are now able to simultaneously pull up a patient's entire outpatient clinical record (from Kaiser's system), as well as inpatient information (from Exempla's systems), enabling them to accurately and efficiently treat patients.
• A decrease in lost clinical information. Kaiser's centralized call center physicians now have direct access to Exempla's system when transferring patients from another clinic or ED. Right away, Exempla's department experienced a decrease in lost clinical information during patient transfers between facilities.
• More accurate clinical documentation. The department achieved a decrease in duplication and unnecessary testing and procedures. The department also realized an immediate 16 percent increase in documentation of critical care cases and charges.
• Interoperability. ED PulseCheck seamlessly communicates with existing Exempla and Kaiser EMR technologies.

Additionally, the ED team demonstrated how an insurance company, primary and specialty care physicians, and a large hospital organization can successfully exchange resources and information to provide state-of-the art care to the people they serve.

Dr. Chang is a physician at Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital's emergency department.

Source: ADVANCEweb
URL to article: http://health-care-it.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=213010