Windsor Times - 'Thompson visits clinics'
September 22, 2010
Congressman Mike Thompson visited Alliance Medical Center last week to see a demonstration of a new, state-of-the-art, medical record technology designed to enhance patient care and facilitate communication among providers. Thompson took the opportunity to have a brief dialogue with Alliance leaders about healthcare.
“I think that people need to know that health care reform is good stuff. We spent $70 million on uncompensated care in District 1 last year. That's the new face of Medical - an unemployed breadwinner who can't afford COBRA,” Thompson said.
Thompson also visited a Satellite Dialysis clinic in Windsor where he spoke to Windsor resident Gary Penders. “Health care is a political issue and it's very important for the congressman to meet people for whom health care is a life and death issue,” said Penders.
Alliance leaders said their new technology will have a real impact on the quality of patient care.
“To be a patient-centered medical home, you have to have electronic records. We have to be on that trainâ€"if we aren't, we are going to be hurting,” said Jack Neureuter, CEO of Alliance Medical Center.
Alliance is implementing both Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Health Information Exchange (HIE).
EHR will shift medical records within the center to a computer-based system, enabling physicians and nurses to call up medical records with the touch of a button instead of a trip to the records room. The transition to EHR will save the center a considerable amount of space: currently, paper records fill an entire front room of the Healdsburg facility, with more records tucked away in additional rooms or storage space. Those papers will not disappear immediately: paper medical records will be retained for 7 years prior to disposal, and children's records will be retained for 7 years after the patient turns 21.
While EHR focuses on operations within the center, HIE focuses on communication between different providers. HIE will enable the center to electronically receive and transmit patient informationâ€"such as lab results or pertinent historyâ€"from other facilities.
With HIE, staff said, privacy and client protection is paramount.
“The state has gone above and beyond HIPAA. We are the leaders in our field,” said Will Ross, project manager for Redwood MedNet, Alliance's technology partner for HIE.
“We are meeting some resistance from other facilities,” Mark Street, technology officer for Alliance, noted. “We're going to have to be trailblazers on this, and show them the tremendous efficiencies to be gained.”
Resistance stemmed not from fear of information leakage but from the required shift in work flow.
“This does represent a work flow change for someone who is a professional, and has optimized their workplace as it is, so there will be some adjustment,” Ross added. “But a lot of health care involves hunting around for the information required to make the decision, instead of deciding. The purpose of MedNet is to make it easier for the caregivers.”
Alliance has been studying HIE and evaluating systems for four years, and did not choose MedNet lightly.
“We studied vendors for four years before signing the contract in July. We weren't just picking a product, we were picking an organization that would provide us long term support,” Street said.
HIE is already functioning at Alliance; the center can currently receive patient lab results from LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics, Healdsburg District Hospital, and Santa Rosa Imaging.
EHR is still in the early phase of implementation. Preliminary training for EHR has begun, but the system will not go live until next year. Alliance plans to implement the EHR system first at the Windsor facility in February of 2011. The Healdsburg facility will follow suit in April or May, and the transition is expected to be complete by July of 2011.
Although ultimately both systems aim to save money and increase efficiency, EHR will require a considerable initial investment.
“The rule of thumb is that we lose three dollars for every dollar we spend on the system,” Neureuter said.
That cost is associated with the retraining of staff. Typically, immediately after implementation, the rate of service will slow from 3 patients per hour to 1 patient per hour.
“They say you lose 80 percent productivity the first month, 60 percent the second, then 40 percent, then 20 percent, and by the end of the fourth month you're back to normal,” Neureuter said. “We're hoping to cut that training time to two months.”
The cost of lost productivity, combined with an approximate $1 million system, is a steep price to pay at a time when donations are slow and uncompensated care costs are higher than ever. But the leadership at Alliance is weighing short-term costs with long-term benefits.
“It's so important, because medical records are the quality of care for the patient,” Neureunter said.
Alliance has experienced the firsthand effects of the economic recession and residents' consequent inability to pay for insurance. Ray Holley, community relations representative for Alliance, thanked Thompson for his work securing funding and support at the federal level.
“We should acknowledge Congressman Mike Thompson for his contributions to all medical centers,” Holley said.
“I think that people need to know that health care reform is good stuff. We spent $70 million on uncompensated care in District 1 last year. That's the new face of Medical - an unemployed breadwinner who can't afford COBRA,” Thompson said.
Thompson also visited a Satellite Dialysis clinic in Windsor where he spoke to Windsor resident Gary Penders. “Health care is a political issue and it's very important for the congressman to meet people for whom health care is a life and death issue,” said Penders.
Alliance leaders said their new technology will have a real impact on the quality of patient care.
“To be a patient-centered medical home, you have to have electronic records. We have to be on that trainâ€"if we aren't, we are going to be hurting,” said Jack Neureuter, CEO of Alliance Medical Center.
Alliance is implementing both Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Health Information Exchange (HIE).
EHR will shift medical records within the center to a computer-based system, enabling physicians and nurses to call up medical records with the touch of a button instead of a trip to the records room. The transition to EHR will save the center a considerable amount of space: currently, paper records fill an entire front room of the Healdsburg facility, with more records tucked away in additional rooms or storage space. Those papers will not disappear immediately: paper medical records will be retained for 7 years prior to disposal, and children's records will be retained for 7 years after the patient turns 21.
While EHR focuses on operations within the center, HIE focuses on communication between different providers. HIE will enable the center to electronically receive and transmit patient informationâ€"such as lab results or pertinent historyâ€"from other facilities.
With HIE, staff said, privacy and client protection is paramount.
“The state has gone above and beyond HIPAA. We are the leaders in our field,” said Will Ross, project manager for Redwood MedNet, Alliance's technology partner for HIE.
“We are meeting some resistance from other facilities,” Mark Street, technology officer for Alliance, noted. “We're going to have to be trailblazers on this, and show them the tremendous efficiencies to be gained.”
Resistance stemmed not from fear of information leakage but from the required shift in work flow.
“This does represent a work flow change for someone who is a professional, and has optimized their workplace as it is, so there will be some adjustment,” Ross added. “But a lot of health care involves hunting around for the information required to make the decision, instead of deciding. The purpose of MedNet is to make it easier for the caregivers.”
Alliance has been studying HIE and evaluating systems for four years, and did not choose MedNet lightly.
“We studied vendors for four years before signing the contract in July. We weren't just picking a product, we were picking an organization that would provide us long term support,” Street said.
HIE is already functioning at Alliance; the center can currently receive patient lab results from LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics, Healdsburg District Hospital, and Santa Rosa Imaging.
EHR is still in the early phase of implementation. Preliminary training for EHR has begun, but the system will not go live until next year. Alliance plans to implement the EHR system first at the Windsor facility in February of 2011. The Healdsburg facility will follow suit in April or May, and the transition is expected to be complete by July of 2011.
Although ultimately both systems aim to save money and increase efficiency, EHR will require a considerable initial investment.
“The rule of thumb is that we lose three dollars for every dollar we spend on the system,” Neureuter said.
That cost is associated with the retraining of staff. Typically, immediately after implementation, the rate of service will slow from 3 patients per hour to 1 patient per hour.
“They say you lose 80 percent productivity the first month, 60 percent the second, then 40 percent, then 20 percent, and by the end of the fourth month you're back to normal,” Neureuter said. “We're hoping to cut that training time to two months.”
The cost of lost productivity, combined with an approximate $1 million system, is a steep price to pay at a time when donations are slow and uncompensated care costs are higher than ever. But the leadership at Alliance is weighing short-term costs with long-term benefits.
“It's so important, because medical records are the quality of care for the patient,” Neureunter said.
Alliance has experienced the firsthand effects of the economic recession and residents' consequent inability to pay for insurance. Ray Holley, community relations representative for Alliance, thanked Thompson for his work securing funding and support at the federal level.
“We should acknowledge Congressman Mike Thompson for his contributions to all medical centers,” Holley said.
Issues:Health Care