Putting technology to use at NRMC
Most American hospitals have been slow to get thoroughly computerized, but Nevada Regional Medical Center has gotten ahead of the curve with a $2 million system giving nurses, doctors and other professionals the newest in medical technology.
Starting in late 2008, NRMC has partnered with the multinational Massachusetts-based firm Meditech to replace its old paper system and provide instant access throughout the hospital to the pharmacy, radiology department, laboratory, respiratory therapy, registration and billing.
In April last year the nurses' PCS, or patient care system, started going in along with the EDM (emergency department module), then last summer the feature of which the staff may be most proud -- the Bedside Medication Verification System -- was installed.
And by the end of this year after a pilot program going up in July, all the physicians will be plugged in and able constantly to monitor their patients, even from home in the middle of the night.
NRMC Case Management-Risk Management Administrator Holly Bush said Thursday that fewer than 20 percent of American hospitals have a system as advanced as Nevada's. "It was fortunate strategic planning," Bush said.
"The next big challenge for health care here and nationally is to keep patients out of the hospital once they have had that acute illness. There is a high percentage now that is re-admitted within 30 days."
Bush said the 800 S. Ash St. hospital will apply for $2.4 million in federal "re-incentivizing meaningful use" money between 2013 and 2015 to pay for the improvements.
With the new PCS, she said, nurses are checking vital signs, laboratory results and other data while the BMV helps them ensure through bar coding on patients' arm bands that the patients are getting the right doses of prescribed medications at the correct times.
Bush said the next major development, although not yet available here, may be a system that predicts illnesses before they appear.
NRMC Information Technology Director Jeff Price said the doctors are being hooked up last because they want access to everything at once.
Price said one advantage of the new system is that it affords simultaneous access by various departments whereas the old paper records could only be used by one person or department at a time. "It could have been that a paper chart was just lying around somewhere and anybody could pick it up," he said.
"Now it's a lot easier to control information and who does or doesn't need it."
Price said that enables full compliance with the privacy requirements of the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. "We're ahead of a lot of people, trying to do the right thing for the community," he said.