By Amanda Sounart, associate editor
The health care industry is taking a slow but steady leap into the digital age according to a new report from HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society). The group, which focuses exclusively on health care information technology, has announced its list of 42 hospitals that have reached Stage 6 Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption.
This is a relatively small number of hospitals at only 0.5 percent of the 5,166 hospitals monitored by HIMSS. However, the number has increased from 0.3 percent of hospitals reaching Stage 6 in 2007. What’s more, none of the hospitals monitored reached Stage 7 in 2007, while 0.3 percent were able to reach that level of technology adoption in 2008.
HIMSS categorizes health care technology adoption in a total of eight stages (0-7). The stages include:
Stage 0) Limited or no technology adoption.
Stage 1) Computerized laboratory, radiology and pharmacy systems installed.
Stage 2) Clinical data repository (CDR) and controlled medical vocabulary and clinical decision support.
Stage 3) A CDR, error checking capabilities and a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) available outside of radiology.
Stage 4) Computerized physician order entry added to the nursing and CDR systems.
Stage 5) Closed loop medication administration.
Stage 6) Full physician documentation and a full PACS system for both film and digital imaging.
Stage 7) Fully electronic medical records, full communication across medical imaging and CDR with data warehousing in use.
"We integrated this technology because we wanted improved quality and patient safety," said Ed Babakanian, chief information officer for University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center, one of the hospitals that have reached Stage 6 adoption. "It helps to make sure that care is safe and eliminates the possibility of errors. In our environment, a prescription goes electronically all the way from the physician to the patient. When it’s delivered, the patient is scanned, the medicine is scanned and the nurse is scanned. If something is wrong, it will stop the drug from being administered."
The Obama administration has made the adoption of EMRs a platform of health care reform and the administration has offered up a healthy dose of motivation coming in the form of $4 billion worth in stimulus dollars. The administration hopes that paperless medical record systems will provide greater patient safety and prove to be more economical in the long run.
Babakanian noted that considerable time and resources are saved through the use of EMRs. In-hospital prescriptions are just one example of fiscal advantages of digital conversion. In a non-digital environment, when the physician orders medication, they write the order on a paper pad, the paper then goes through a nurse or other third party who sends it to the pharmacy. With the busy pace of the hospital setting, it can take several hours for non-emergency medication to reach a patient and it utilizes the time and attention of several employees.
"In our environment, the process only takes a few minutes," said Babakanian. "The prescription goes from the physician to the pharmacist. The physicians and nurses use less paper and can be more efficient. There’s less storage of paper. And it’s easier to coordinate care. At any given time, a paper chart can only be in one place. In our environment, the chart is everywhere it needs to be. It can speed up discharge orders and coordinate patient care more effectively."
UCSD hasn’t stopped with Stage 6. The facility is continuing with their quest to stay ahead of the technology curve and reach Stage 7.
"We’re continuing to focus on improving technology and it would be a mistake to say we’re in good shape so we should stop here," noted Babakanian. "We’re launching a voice recognition technology so the documentation process is even faster. In our cancer center, we are deploying a system to help a doctor manage complex chemotherapies and we’re implemented an RFID (radio frequency identification) so that a doctor can look on a screen and know where a piece of equipment is."
While technology offers several advantages over a paper system, Babakanian notes that the most important part of medicine is the compassion of the caregivers. "You have to have a balance between having electronic information and having a caring touch by care providers. We approach healthcare from many different aspects to provide the best for our patients."
For more information on the HIMSS stages of EMR adoption and to view the complete list of Stage 6 hospitals visit the HIMSS Analytics Web site.
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