Hospitals in the Integris Health system will be undergoing a major change, led by Integris Bass Baptist Health Center in Enid.
On March 22, Bass began using a system that allows nurses to compile notes online, as well as track vital signs and medications for patients.
Bruce Lawrence, president and chief executive officer of Integris Health, said Wednesday the system used at Bass will be implemented at other Integris facilities over the next three years.
Lawrence said Bass was a good hospital to begin the program because of its fine reputation and size.
“(Bass was) a size that made it more logistically favorable to implement,” Lawrence said.
Jeff Tarrant, president of Bass, said information technology (IT) professionals had worked on the system for about 18 months before it went up.
Cerner, a company specializing in IT for medical institutions, helped put together the system.
Tarrant said transferring some documents to a computerized format will allow more convenience for the patient as well as the medical professional.
Tarrant used an example of a person having to go to a medical facility outside of Enid.
In the past, Tarrant said, if the person had X-rays a nurse in the other facility needed, he or she would have to physically take the X-rays with them.
Not so anymore, he said.
With the push of a few buttons, the X-rays can be sent to the other hospital before the patient even gets there.
As part of the new system, nurses at Bass will be able to record their notes onto documents on a computer. They also can scan a bar code on the wristband of a patient, whose medical information is stored online. The nurse then can pull up the individual’s profile and see what medications they have taken and will need to take, and also what their current bio signs are like.
Lawrence said the company has not yet computed the actual cost of the conversion; he did say the annual IT budget for the entire Integris Health system is around $12 million.
He said he expects moving documents online will save the company money.
“It’ll reduce paper cost and save (employees) time,” Lawrence said.
The effect on the patient
There are several ways taking records online is a benefit to the patient, Lawrence said.
First, information can be recorded more accurately and precisely.
“There are safety mechanisms in place to give them peace of mind,” he said. “To know the probability of errors goes down in documentation the more electronically integrated it is (helps).”
Second, he said, the overall care-delivery process will become more expedient with the change.
Another benefit to the move, Tarrant said, is medical professionals at Bass will be able to adapt to the future and learn more about technology in the field.
“It will also give the nurse more time to spend with the patient,” Lawrence said. “For a lot of nurses, a lot of time is spent with documentation.”
Looking ahead
Lawrence believes the future is bright for all hospitals in the Integris Health system, especially at Bass.
Though not all documents at Bass have been converted to a digital format, Tarrant hopes they soon will be.
The next phase in Bass’ plans is to implement computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, for the physicians at the hospital.
“That’s roughly two years away,” Tarrant said.
Physicians at Bass now have to write pharmaceutical orders as well as other notes down by hand, but that will change soon.
Also, in two weeks, nurses as well as physicians in the emergency room at Bass will have electronic access to records, similar to how nurses in the regular hospital facility do.