Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City
Enters New Era with ‘Project Genesis’
Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City will soon take a giant leap
into the future of health care by transitioning to a paperless,
electronic health record system that makes use of leading-edge technology
and best practices to increase patient safety and improve efficiency
in the delivery of quality care.
This weekend, during 'Go-Live,’ the time when Mercy will officially
switch from paper to electronic records, Sioux City’s busiest
hospital will become one of the most technologically innovative
hospitals in the nation, according to Scott Wells, vice president
of patient care services.
“Few healthcare providers in the country have tried anything
this extensive,” Wells explained. “We are taking the
lead in bringing the latest technology to patient care not only
in Siouxland but in the nation, as well.”
“In what is one of the most significant developments in Mercy’s
115-year history, this enormous initiative seeks to do what is best
for our patients by bringing health care more fully into the realm
of 21st century information management,” Wells added.
Dubbed Project Genesis, the nearly $300 million system-wide initiative
includes implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE),
an adverse drug event (ADE) alert system, and the timely incorporation
of equipment that healthcare providers at Mercy can use for bedside
patient care and more precise record keeping.
Once CPOE is in place at Mercy, nurses, physicians and other clinicians
will find that waiting for lab results, searching for patient charts,
or deciphering physician handwriting will be a thing of the past.
"CPOE provides immediate transmission of physician orders to
pharmacy, laboratory, and radiology; faster test results reporting;
and the accessibility of patient information at the point of care,"
said Dr. Larry Sellers, chief medical officer. "These processes
will help Mercy Medical Center increase patient safety and enhance
quality of care.”
CPOE includes an electronic prescribing system that intercepts errors
when they most commonly occur - at the time medications are ordered.
With CPOE, physicians enter orders into a computer rather than on
paper. Orders are integrated with patient information, including
laboratory and prescription data. The order is then automatically
checked for potential conflicts or problems. Project Genesis will
also speed up the delivery of medications.
“The Leapfrog Group, a consortium of more than 90 Fortune
500 companies founded by the Business Roundtable, reported that
more than 1 million medication errors occur every year in hospitals
throughout the United States,” said Sellers. “An estimated
20% of adverse drug events are life threatening and studies show
that a computerized prescription system can reduce serious medication
mistakes by up to 86%. That is why the Leapfrog Group has so strongly
recommended that hospitals adopt CPOE.”
CPOE helps nurses respond to patients in 'real time' because orders
are entered online at the point of care and then automatically sent
to appropriate hospital departments, according to Wells, a veteran
nurse himself.
"Treatments and interventions immediately appear on staff work
lists, thus eliminating waiting and reducing the possibility of
missed tasks," he explained. “And because nurses will
be spending less time on paperwork, they will have more time to
spend with their patients.”
With the advent of electronic health records at Mercy comes greater
flexibility for physicians, nurses, and other providers since they
will no longer have just one paper medical record with which to
work. On any given day, all staff members and physicians in any
of the hospital’s patient care units will have access to at
least one computer. Operating on wireless technology, Project Genesis
gives providers access to data from laptops, tablets, and mobile
computers on wheels.
“Mercy is fully committed to bringing clinical data to the
fingertips of our clinicians wherever they have secured access,"
said Sellers. “Physician productivity will be improved because
they have home and office access to their patients’ medical
records.”
Sellers and Wells said safeguards are in place to protect the privacy
and integrity of a patient’s electronic health record.
“Access controls and passwords will offer a high level of
security,” said Wells. “Each time anyone accesses a
patient’s electronic health record, they will leave behind
an ‘electronic footprint’ of that visit, which will
help the hospital closely monitor who is looking at this closely
protected information and for what purpose.”
Trinity Health, the Novi, Mich. based Catholic healthcare ministry
with which Mercy is affiliated, initiated its plan for Project Genesis
in 2000. Mercy—Sioux City will be the seventh hospital in
the system to ‘Go Live’ with the new state-of-the-art
information system. Sixteen other hospitals will follow by 2008.
The bold initiative not only addresses the Leapfrog Group’s
recommendation that all hospitals improve patient safety and quality
of care with CPOE, but also meets President Bush's initiative to
reduce patient errors and improve health care. In his 2004 State
of the Union Address, Bush called for the provision of an electronic
health record for all Americans within 10 years.
Hospital leaders at Mercy have been planning for the calculated
transition to the age of electronic medical records for the past
two years. In all, hospital staff members and physicians have spent
literally thousands of hours in training.
As a result, Wells said he anticipates a smooth transition during
Project Genesis ‘Go Live’ on Friday, Sept. 9.
"Thanks to a great deal of training and preparation, we plan
to make a smooth, seamless transition to a new era,” he said.
“Extra staff members will be in place, and every possible
contingency has been addressed.”
“It may take some time before every staff member and physician
is completely comfortable with our new way of managing information
and delivering care, but we all know how much it will benefit patients
in the end. To us, that is what is most important.”
Mercy Medical Center’s patient safety record is among the
best in the nation, according to a May 2005 study issued by HealthGrades,
an organization that evaluates hospital quality for consumers, corporations,
hospitals and health plans.
The study of 37 million patient records from 4,200 hospitals over
the years 2001, 2002 and 2003 also identifies Mercy Medical Center—Sioux
City as a recipient of the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award
for Excellence in Patient Safety™.
This is the second year in a row that Mercy has received the prestigious
national honor, which ranks the regional medical center in the top
3% of the nation’s hospitals for overall patient safety.
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