Cris(mas) in Australia: Children's Hospital puts patient records online
 Children's Hospital Puts Patient Records Online
GENERATING OVER 2 MILLION PAGES OF PATIENT RECORDS ANNUALLY, AN AUSTRALIAN HOSPITAL HAS TAKEN THE FIRST STEPS TOWARD ELIMINATING THE PAIN OF PAPER.
Document processing software provider Tower Technology (617-236-5500 / www.towertech. com) has been awarded a $1.5 million contract with one of the leading Children's hospitals in Sydney, Australia. The (children's Hospital at Westmead will transform the way patient information is stored and accessed using Tower's Clinical Record Information System (CRIS). The hospital hopes that the need for paper records will be eliminated giving 1000 clinical and non-clinical workers instant, electronic access to patient records.
"CRIS is specifically developed for medical record processing using an open platform architecture," said Noel Jones, managing director for Tower's Australia office. "Integration was particularly appealing to the hospital as they had an existing clinical workstation system from Corner Corporation. The integration of CRIS with Cerner's Powerchart system means the Children's Hospital has a complete electronic health record," said Jones.
Using CRIS. all new patient records from desktop applications, Web sessions, e-mail, or from scanned or faxed paper documents are filed and presented to the clinician as a digital folder. Copies of electronic reports are automatically downloaded and filed against patient records, making them immediately available as part of the integrated electronic medical record.
CRIS eliminates the need for clinical staff to undergo extensive training or significantly change the way they work. Documents are captured during the patient's time in the hospital and are instantly made available for viewing through the TOWER Document Portal".
"Over 27,000 patients are admitted to the Children's Hospital each year," said Dr. Ralph Hanson, director of information services at the hospital. Hanson believes CRIS will provide substantial efficiencies in record management and increase responsiveness to patient record access.
"The hospital processes over 23,000 new medical records a year (with an average of 89 pages per record), so a system that enables us to manage these records more efficiently is a welcome addition. All new documents will be scanned in and we expect this to create enormous savings in records processing and storage space in the future," Dr. Hanson said.
Electronic patient files ensure records can't get lost, misplaced or destroyed and also subject records to high levels of security. While CRIS makes files easier and faster to access, staff will be granted different levels of security access to ensure patient confidentiality.
"We expect there to be significant productivity gains for both clinical and non-clinical staff who work with medical records. Ready access to an integrated medical record through the desktop will help improve patient care and ensure the security of medical records." said Hanson.
Copyright Association for Work Process Improvement Dec 2002
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