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Medical charts without paper

Citrus Memorial's new computers will give doctors quicker access to information vital to better patient care.

By RAGHURAM VADAREVU
Published July 7, 2005

INVERNESS - In the not too distant future, a physician affiliated with Citrus Memorial Hospital will be able to sit at her desk at home and dial into the hospital's computer system over a secure Internet connection and check in on her patient.

She will be able to see her patient's medical history, charts, and up-to-date test results and diagnostic images. If something in the file strikes her as unusual, the physician can ask one of her hospital colleagues to look in as well.

The Web doc is not the only 21st century capability that's coming to the county's largest hospital.

The Citrus Memorial Health Foundation Board decided recently to embark on a multimillion-dollar, multiyear effort to computerize dozens of hospital functions.

Over the next year, the hospital will spend $1.2-million to make the emergency room run more efficiently, bring computers to patients' bedsides, digitize diagnostic imaging and enable physicians to check in on their patients via the Internet.

"The first and foremost is to improve patient care and patient safety," said Jerry DeLoach, the hospital's chief operating officer, adding that the modernization also will help the hospital become more efficient and therefore save money in the coming years.

In addition to the $1.2-million expected to be spent over the coming year, the hospital board expects to spend roughly $9-million over the following three years to complete its modernization plan, DeLoach said.

Here's what patients can expect as soon as January 2006:

The emergency room will be outfitted with wireless, bedside computers so nurses and physicians can enter patient medical histories and complaints and order tests. Other medical staff members can see the entered information in real time anywhere in the hospital.

Hospital officials believe this will help patient care because it would allow physicians to check on a patient's status even when the physician is with another patient in another wing of the hospital.

After the emergency room, the wireless bedside computers - nicknamed COWS for Computers On Wheels - would be installed throughout the rest of the hospital by 2008, said Rebecca Martin, the hospital spokeswoman.

The ER also will get what officials call a tracking board. The board will be reminiscent of "a big board at the airport where all the flights and gates are listed," Martin said.

The board will indicate where a patient is, how long she has been in the ER, the medical personnel assigned to her and the tests ordered for her, Martin said. It also would have a flashing red light to indicate whether a test result is abnormal, she said.

Martin said patient privacy would be safeguarded with the new board possibly being placed in an area of the ER that would only be accessible by medical personnel.

The hospital will install a system to archive diagnostic imaging, from X-rays to magnetic resonance imaging.

"It will be a fast, convenient and efficient way of storing them," Martin said, adding that the new system will make history of the laborious process of storing hard copies of items such as X-rays and eliminate the potential for misfiling images.

A physician can look at the image via computer. In addition, the physician can ask a colleague to look in at the same image without both having to assemble before the same lightboard. They can be on opposite sides of the hospital, Martin said.

The physician portal will not only allow a physician to check in on a patient via the Internet, but it also will enable, for example, a primary care physician to call upon a specialist who is also affiliated with the hospital for a consultation on a patient, Martin said.

With access to a patient's files, test results and diagnostic images, the specialist can make an assessment from miles away.

In addition to allowing physicians to check on patients and confer with other colleagues about a medical case, the computer system also would allow physicians to electronically sign charts from their offices or homes, Martin said.

It would cut out the time it might take a physician in Lecanto, for example, to drive to the hospital in Inverness and sign their charts, she said.

DeLoach said the hospital has taken measures to ensure that patient information transmitted to and from a physician's home or office is secure and encrypted.

After 2007, hospital officials hope to start placing bar codes on medication and patient's identification bracelets in an effort to reduce the chance the wrong medication is given to the patient, Martin said.

A nurse, for example, would first scan the patient's bracelet bar code, identify the patient and what medication the patient needs. Then, the nurse would scan the medication's bar code, and if it matched up, she would dispense it, Martin said.

"It helps assure that it is done right," Martin said.

Does this mean the patient will see less of a physician, since they can access her records from home or another part of the hospital?

It's actually the opposite, DeLoach said.

"It should free them (physicians) up to spend more time with patients and makes critical information much more accessible to them," he said.

Raghuram Vadarevu can be reached at rvadarevu@sptimes.com or 352 564-3627.

[Last modified July 7, 2005, 01:01:15]