Technology earns EMMC 'most wired' recognition
Photo/Courtesy EMMC
Ehab Hanna, Eastern Maine Medical Center's assistant chief medical information officer, works at a computer
For the third time in as many years, Eastern Maine Medical Center has been named one of the "Most Wired Hospitals" in the country. The designation comes as part of an annual survey by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine and the results help gauge to what degree hospitals are adopting technology and how they are using it.
This year, the 12th year the survey has run, 1,280 hospitals participated, representing about a quarter of the nation's health care facilities. Eastern Maine Medical Center was the only Maine health care institution to make the top list, although Maine Medical Center in Portland has made the top 100 list in past years. There were no Maine hospitals in the "most improved" category as have been in the past and none of Maine's hospitals were among those listed separately as the top 25 rural hospitals for use of technology.
Officials at the Bangor hospital say the survey results recognize where the hospital has been as well as where it is going.
"In the past 20 years or so we have been working at trying to build an electronic tool to share data across the system," says Dr. Ehab Hanna, assistant chief medical information officer.
Computers, including hand-held devices, are becoming ubiquitous in hospitals like EMMC. Patient and medication information is available at a few keystrokes, aiding the physicians, nurses and other health care professionals. Hanna estimates that EMMC and parent company Eastern Maine Healthcare System has spent "in the millions" to strengthen technology in the hospital.
The hospital's success has helped leverage additional funding and projects as well as recognition as a leader in implementing technology.
Earlier this year, EMHS was named the recipient of $12.75 million as part of the federal Beacon Communities program to expand the use of telemedicine and the exchange of patient information between facilities like nursing homes and primary care physician offices to the hospital, as well as between hospitals around the state.
And two years ago, EMMC was the sole recipient of the Nicholas E. Davies Organizational Award of Excellence, a top honor in the health care information technology field.
With the federal government currently providing a carrot-and-stick approach with financial incentives now and potential penalties in the future for non-compliance in meeting standards, hospitals are increasingly looking to upgrade.
"It's becoming more of an imperative for hospitals to add some of these technologies," says Matthew Weinstock, senior editor for Hospitals & Health Networks, which is a publication of the American Hospitals Association.
So what is EMMC doing at the hospital level to implement technology? For starters, it's reducing volumes of paperwork -- in some cases amounting to reams of paper -- that accompanies patients but is difficult to access by all the necessary clinicians. Now, paper is largely being replaced with laptops or computers carted around on wheels. The hospital is also test-driving the latest technological device, the iPad, to access patient information.
And in the not-so-distant future, just about everything in the hospital will come with a bar code, like the kind used on groceries in the supermarket. Expected to be rolled out in a year, the barcoding system would allow a nurse to scan a patient's bar code to determine what medications or doctor's orders are required.
Ultimately access to the electronic medical records and alert systems means fewer mistakes and better care for the patient. "It's not only safety that it provides to our patients, but it is also more efficient," Hanna says.
Despite EMMC's strides, operating in Maine may mean coming to it from a bit of a disadvantage. One-third of the hospitals on the top wired list were from rural areas, suggesting urban areas have a leg up when it comes to advancing technologies.
Mary Mayhew, vice president of government and communications for the Maine Hospital Association, agrees that Maine hospitals have state-specific issues to contend with, but Maine hospitals are still moving forward. Most have already implemented electronic health records, for example, she says.
Still, work needs to be done, even at a hospital that has a record of achieving results. "We're not where we can say, ‘We can stop, we are at 100%,'" Hanna says. "But that's our goal and I'm not stopping until we get there."
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