Dana Moore, chief information officer for Centura Health, said
that the process of incorporating electronic medical records has
been a journey.
“Our first hospital went live late 2006,” Moore said. “Then the
remaining hospitals throughout 2007.”
With 12 hospitals throughout Colorado, Centura Health will offer
a team of connected networks and shared resources to deliver
accessible, reliable and cost-effective health care across the
state.
“Our patient’s safety and medical care always comes first,”
Moore said. “We told the board there would be no return on
investment (with electronic medical records technology). We are
making care safer, to benefit the patient.”
The benefits of electronic medical records technology is vast.
This will replace paper-based medical records that can be
incomplete, fragmented and sometimes hard to find, not to mention
hard to read. The records can provide a single, shareable,
up-to-date, accurate, rapidly retrievable information, potentially
available anywhere at any time. It requires less space and
administrative resources, while streamlining clinical workflow.
“Let’s say a Mr. Dana Moore shows up in an emergency room,”
Moore said. “An electronic query is sent out, and information about
my allergies, medications and if there are any problems shows
up.”
Moore said it will give all patients across the board, a
continuum of care and will eliminate errors that can happen in the
transfer of care.
“And it will reduce the number of redundant tests,” Moore
said.
Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree has 65 percent of its
medical records automated.
“Right now, we are rolling out across our entire HCA (160
hospital networks in the United States) software called, ‘horizon
patient folder,’” said Linda Watson, director of marketing and
public affairs. “The electronic version that connects our clinical
systems directly to the physicians’ offices.”
Watson said, through “patient keeper” mobility, physicians can
use their iPhones for access to patient medical information, such
as labs, X-rays, vital signs and discharge planning.
“Our OB air-strip enables doctors to access fetal monitoring
through their iPhones,” Watson said.
The Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, CORHIO,
created in 2007, is a nonprofit organization that facilitates
health information exchange to improve care for all Coloradans.
“Electronic medical records is a big initiative at CORHIO,”
Moore said.
According to CORHIO statistics, there are nearly 100,000 medical
errors annually and 30 percent of the health care costs are
unnecessary. With health information exchange, it will eliminate
inefficiencies and duplicated efforts in the health care system by
making information more available, health care quality will be
improved and dollars will be saved.
The new $23.6 million facility Centura Health is planning to
start building in Castle Rock this year will open with electronic
medical records capability, Moore said.
