TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN A PART of the hospital landscape for decades, and hospitals have now begun to implement digital technology
to improve communications between physician and nurses, lessen the likelihood of medication errors, and improve the quality
of care, leading to better patient outcomes. Some are investing as much as 25% of their budgets to become digital.
"There is some form of technology in virtually every hospital in the country," says John Vitalis, a senior principal for the
Noblis Center for Health Innovation, a Falls Church, Va.-based nonprofit technology organization. "It touches every department,
both clinical and non-clinical."
A digital hospital transformation often includes making patient data immediately accessible to any pertinent clinician within
the facility or in a remote location. Many new hospitals are building in all-digital platforms, and older hospitals are increasingly
switching over. HHS estimates that health IT could save as much as $140 billion a year by 2014.
MHE EXECUTIVE VIEW
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"With an electronic chart, you can have things going on concurrently and simultaneously," says David Pecoraro, vice president
and chief information officer for Exempla Healthcare, a three-hospital, 1,000-bed system in Denver. "The attending physician,
specialist and nurse can all have the chart open at one time. All patient data goes to a common record."
Older hospitals are finding money in their capital budgets to transform themselves into digital facilities one step at a time,
perhaps starting with the implementation of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, followed by electronic medical
records (EMRs) and the adoption of clinical systems for the emergency department. While the cost for implementation varies,
Vitalis says it is not unusual for hospitals to allocate between 20% and 25% of their capital budgets for digital technology.
DATA STAYS WITH THE PATIENT
The use of an integrated system allows providers to track many patients quickly, such as when a patient is transferred out
of a critical care unit.
"With our paper-based system, very little of a patient's data in the critical care setting was available to the general care
attending physician," says Lee Carmen, chief information officer and associate vice president for medical affairs for University
of Iowa Health Care, which began implementing a third-party technology solution in January 2007. "They were unable to see
the history of that patient, whether there was an incidence of cardiac arrest or what medications were administered."
Now, all information is electronically stored and stays with that patient from the critical care setting to general care to
discharge to primary care.
On a real-time basis, the technology allows physicians and nurses to focus on patient care, rather than on constantly updating
chart information, Carmen says. On an analytical basis, digital technology allows clinicians to conduct post-treatment reviews
in a way that was almost impossible in a paper-based system.
"We are able to collect, aggregate and study the data along particular diagnosis-related groups or service lines," Carmen
says. "We're analyzing what treatment protocols yield what clinical outcome successes over a substantial patient population
and period of time. This is truly transforming and absolutely crucial to our success. This type of analysis cannot take place
without a high degree of digitalization."
