5/13/2010 - "Getting Ready for Meaningful Use: Positioning Your Facility to Meet the Guidelines".
Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 first outlined the incentives providers would be able to receive for "meaningful use" of certified electronic health record technology, hospitals, physicians and other healthcare organizations have been gearing up and trying to figure out what the law will mean for them.
...edited...
Those that are farthest along in the journey toward meaningful use are not necessarily the usual suspects like large integrated systems. Just ask Darrel Morris, the CEO of Drumright Regional Hospital, 40 miles west of Tulsa, Okla. Drumright is proof that even a small, rural critical access hospital can take the lead in implementing meaningful healthcare information technology improvements.
Read the full article at Becker's Hospital Review.
read more...
6/12/2009 - "Drumright's hospital moves to an all-electronic records system to improve care and cut costs."
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.
Read more from this
Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090612_17_A13_LorriR963735
read more...