Electric medicine

guest commentary by Jeff Johnston, president and CEO of St. Edward Mercy Health System

You’re sitting in the doctor’s waiting room reading the latest bestseller on your Kindle, listening to your favorite music on an iPod or booking your next vacation on your Blackberry. Then when you get back to the exam room, the physician pulls out a pen and paper. Despite all the technology around us, most physicians nationwide still wade through paper.

In almost 20 years in health care, I’ve seen the rapid development of medical devices to diagnose and treat patients. Our surgeons now do laparoscopic surgeries with HD cameras and monitors, IV medications are given by “smart” pumps that check and double check dosages and you can see your unborn baby on a 4-D ultrasound. Even though American health care is known for the use of advanced technology in treating patients, doctors and hospitals have been slow to replace paper records with electronic records. In fact, most health care providers don’t have access to a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) – an estimated 90% of them.

Electronic Health Records can connect our various visits and experiences in health into one comprehensive picture. For example, what happens when the high blood pressure your physician has been closely monitoring turns into chest pain after hours? If your visits were documented in a paper chart, no one but those in the doctor’s office would have access and they’re closed for the night. But if you visited a physician’s office with a comprehensive EHR, the Emergency Room physicians and nurses would have access to your latest records. There would be no guessing about what your baseline EKG looks like, what your latest lab work showed or what medications you’re taking. You wouldn’t even have to fill out the registration forms twice. These are just some of the conveniences of EHR.

There is no doubt that EHR’s are the future of health care. They’re even a major part of the Health Care Reform Act. Beginning in 2015, hospitals and physician offices will be subject to financial penalties under Medicare if they don’t have electronic health records in place. Luckily for many of us in the River Valley, the wait will not be that long. The Sisters of Mercy Health System, of which St. Edward Mercy is a part, invested $450 million in an Electronic Health Record system called EPIC back in 2005. This comprehensive system “goes live” at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center on Sept. 26 and in St. Edward Mercy Clinics on Sept. 27.

On that date, physicians will begin writing prescriptions and making orders electronically — no more trying to decipher physician handwriting. Medical charts will be where you need them, when you need them so nurses won’t have to waste time hunting down paper files. Caregivers will have to electronically sign in to charts, leaving an entry record that will protect privacy. EPIC will change the way healthcare is delivered at Mercy.

At the heart of this system is the creation of a single, consolidated and continuously updated electronic record for each patient who visits a Mercy physician office, clinic or hospital. A complete picture of a patient’s health and healthcare is instantly available to the patient’s Mercy healthcare providers whether they’re at St. Edward Mercy in Fort Smith, St. Joseph’s Mercy in Hot Springs, Mercy of Northwest Arkansas in Rogers or beyond. The ability to interconnect between Mercy hospitals and clinics in four states is a feat only 2.6% of hospitals nationwide can claim.

In addition, by early 2011, patients with a St. Edward Mercy clinic physician will be able to access many of their medical records using a tool called “My Mercy” on their computer or smart phone. Do you monitor your cholesterol with frequent tests and want to see your progress over time? No problem. You can simply graph the last two years of testing. Do you need to schedule your annual physical but can’t remember to call during business hours? Log in to your EHR account and find your physician’s next available appointment. Need your child’s immunization records for school? Just print it from your account. In a world where we can do almost everything online — access our bank account, program our DVR, even send our wife flowers — isn’t it about time we can take care of our health the same way?

At its core, an EHR means that we will have the tools to take all of the CT scans and specialist visits and lab work and put it together in one place so our providers can have that “a-ha” moment as quickly and efficiently as possible. The one where all the pieces of a medical issue fall into place and the most effective treatment can be prescribed. Now that’s 21st century medicine at its best.

Background
The St. Edward Mercy Health System includes St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith, three critical access hospitals in Waldron, Paris and Ozark, seven St. Edward Mercy Clinic locations and two outpatient rehabilitation clinics. It employs 1900 co-workers. St. Edward Mercy is part of the Sisters of Mercy Health System — the eighth largest Catholic health system in the nation with hospitals in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.