$12 million system to create database to store all patient information
Hospital staff at West Georgia Health System in LaGrange soon can view patients’ medical histories, confirm patients’ identities and allergies and coordinate X-rays, lab tests and treatment without using a scrap of paper.
The more streamlined operations are one benefit to come with a new advanced health information technology system it is beginning to implement this month, a $12 million system designed by MEDITECH, leading provider of health information systems. The system creates a centralized database of patient medical information and enables officials to automate many clinical, financial and administrative functions.
President/CEO Jerry Fulks said such technology will become increasingly important for the hospital.
“Better tools, better information and better ways of sharing information will be critical in connecting the health-care community and insuring the safest, best-possible care for the patients we serve,” Fulks said.
Less than 13 percent of Georgia’s 170-plus hospitals have implemented such systems, according to the Georgia Health Information Exchange, an organization dedicated to the widespread adoption of health information technology. West Georgia Health System is an early adopter and the first health system nationwide to implement MEDITECH’s newest generation of software, Client/Server 6.0, a system designed for reliability, performance and secure, remote access. The health system is a pilot site for the new technology platform.
Early implementation began this month and includes most of the system’s core components. The health system added substantial hardware in preparation, including nearly 90 additional personal computers throughout the hospital, including tablet personal computers for physician use.
Instead of gathering patient information on paper, nursing staff will use these mobile devices to log onto the new system and record a list of patients’ medications, allergies and other critical information at the point of care.
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