Tulsa World: Medical milestone

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Medical milestone
Drumright's hospital moves to an all-electronic records system to improve care and cut costs.

Lorri Rinke, a nurse's assistant at Drumright Regional Hospital, uses an electronic medical records system to record patient Beulah L. Wright's information. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World

By KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer
Published: 6/12/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 6/12/2009 3:38 AM

Wireless notebooks allow nurses to write in charts at patients' bedsides.

A pharmacy feature instantly alerts nurses and doctors to possible drug interactions or patient medication allergies.

Nurses no longer need to decipher doctors' handwriting.

Drumright Regional Hospital is believed to be the state's first to integrate an electronic medical records system to improve care and reduce costs.

"From a medication point of view, we are alerted to any kind of interaction," Nursing Director Susie Cook said. "It's given us all a big sigh of relief."

Other hospitals, particularly urban ones, have pieces of such a system. But none has one as comprehensive and interactive as Drumright's, said Val Schott, director of Oklahoma State University's Center for Rural Health.

"Drumright is a shining example of what can be done," he said. "It is a perfect example of the way technology can improve patient outcomes and quality of care."

The nation's health care system has been urged to adopt electronic medical records systems for years. But most physicians and hospitals say doing so is too costly.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year, fewer than 2 percent of all U.S. hospitals have an integrated electronic medical records system.

"There is more technology at your local McDonalds than at your hospital," said Kelli Christman, a representative of Cerner Corp., the Kansas City, Mo., company that customized the Drumright hospital's system.

How they did it

Drumright Regional took advantage of a $290,000 federal grant offered under former President George W. Bush's administration to implement its system — with the help of OSU.

It cost more than that, but officials would not say how much.

The facility now may be eligible for some of the Obama administration's stimulus funds channeled toward getting national implementation of these systems in five years or facing penalties.

Drumright Regional hired Cerner, which hosts the system itself. All patient information is protected in Kansas City data centers.

Hospital CEO Darrel Morris said the facility's clinic revenue immediately increased $5,000 to $10,000 each month.

A charge is generated automatically when an order is placed, meaning that fewer charges are missed, he said.

Plus, a group of Tulsa pharmacists electronically reviews every prescription and medication order instantly at a quarter of the cost of a full-time pharmacist, he said.

"It's a win-win situation," Morris said. "And you don't see that very often in health care."

Paying off

Cancer Treatment Centers of America implemented its electronic system in March 2008. Despite a steep learning curve, the Tulsa facility has seen great returns in patient safety, said Nan Bertone, director of clinical informatics.

"It's painful, but it's paying off," she said.

The University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and IBM have an- nounced an initiative to implement a communitywide electronic medical records system.

The current medical system "is one that's fraught with chances for errors," Schott said. But electronic medical records significantly reduce those chances.

With an electronic system, security measures are in place, and auditing reports show who looked at your record and what they looked at, Christman said.

For people who fear that electronic medical records might compromise privacy, she notes that medical charts are often hung at the door of a patient's room.

"Anyone can look at your record," Christman said, "and you would have no idea."

Kim Archer 581-8315
kim.archer@tulsaworld.com By KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer

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If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the web staff to review the comment. Thank you. -- Web Editor Jason Collington

	Report Comment R U 4 Real?, BFE (6/12/2009 8:30:16 AM) Army uses a program called MC4, medical communications for combat care
	Report Comment zzx375, BA (6/12/2009 7:43:20 PM) The data requires disk storage and servers and have to be backed up and maintained. Now what about the dictation that physicians still do in their offices?
	Report Comment Stratolifter, (6/14/2009 10:18:24 PM) Now if they could just harbor all the compassion in the world and put it in the hearts of some of those nurses and doctors, we'd all be a lot safer in the hospital. Our family member was treated brutally in a hospital and we were shocked at the number of similar stories we have seen on the internet. The hundreds of articles detailing patient abuse, medical errors, etc. We found one website with a patient diary of a hospital stay that reads like a horror story: theangrypatient dot com. Folks, hang on to your lives if you are put in the hospital. Especially around the long holiday breaks Christmas to New Year. All the skill is on vacation.

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