NEW HSHS INITIATIVE KEYS ON PATIENT SAFETY AND QUALITY BY EASING PHYSICIAN ACCESS TO MEDICAL RECORDS

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Medicity System to Make the Delivery
of Health Care More Efficient

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Patient safety and the quality delivery of health care are the major focus of a new program being launched by the Hospital Sisters Health System that, for the first time, will make the complete health records of HSHS patients more easily and quickly accessible to physicians when and where they are needed.

Hospital Sisters Health System has contracted with Medicity, Inc., a Salt Lake City-based healthcare technology firm, to configure a state-of-the-art computerized central repository for the great variety of medical records now kept by the System’s hospitals and local healthcare systems, as well as an interactive “portal” and information exchange platform that will allow physicians to input and retrieve important data at a moment’s notice in a variety of ways -- –fax, printer, web application, office-based electronic medical record system, or a mobile hand-held devices.

“This new clinical network is a major advancement toward our goal of providing our patients and their families with a more seamless healthcare experience that is fully integrated -- from admitting through diagnosis and treatment to discharge,” said Mark Reifsteck, president of Clinical Integration Network, a subsidiary of HSHS that will coordinate the program. “Our new information portal will help improve quality and safety, eliminate the duplication of tests and streamline care.”

Once operational, the new system will collect, store and make all patient information available to physicians at any time inside and outside HSHS hospitals.

Doctors and other clinicians will be able to quickly access a patient’s entire medical history from their office, a hospital, an imaging center or a laboratory, saving time and ensuring greater accuracy. All information will be available on standard mobile devices that become that physicians can use while making rounds at a hospital as well as personal computers in their offices. The new system has a variety of safeguards that will protect the confidentiality of all patient information.

Currently, patient records within HSHS are entered and recorded in several different computer programs, depending on the record’s point of origin in the hospital, laboratory, imaging, etc. The different record formats make it difficult for physicians to access complete records right away. Having a patient’s complete medical history available in one easy-to-use format also lessens the chance that a duplicative test or procedure may be ordered, or a medicine prescribed twice.

Unlike other electronic health record systems, the HSHS information portal—built on a flexible, new interoperability platform—will allow physicians to use a wide variety of commercially-available electronic medical record and practice management software to view a comprehensive patient record.

“Ultimately, we will invite physician practices and other healthcare organizations to share information,” Reifsteck said. “This kind of record sharing can only serve to improve patient care.”

The implementation of the new system will begin in 2008 and is scheduled to be completed at all 13 HSHS hospitals in 2009.

Medicity, Inc. serves the healthcare industry with web-based portal solutions, electronic health records and community-wide patient indexing solutions for hospitals, payers and large physician groups. The company serves more than 1,800 healthcare organizations and has been connecting healthcare since 1998.

The Hospital Sisters Health System is a Roman Catholic healthcare mission founded to continue the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. Sponsored by the Hospital Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, HSHS is dedicated to serving the poor, the sick and the needy at each of its 13 local systems in Illinois and Wisconsin. The Hospital Sisters Health System provides state-of-the-art medical care framed in traditional values taught by St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.

With $1.5 billion in revenue and more than 14,900 staff, the HSHS hospitals in Wisconsin are located in Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire and Sheboygan, with two in Green Bay. In Illinois, the hospitals are located in Belleville, Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Highland, Litchfield, Springfield and Streator.