 “Inspired by the founders of our hospital, we made a commitment to being a leader in technology that supports high-quality patient care,” says Sam Downing, President/CEO, Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. “A major focus of our strategic plan for the past two decades has been to capitalize on technology not only for diagnostics and treatments, but to manage all of the information essential to running our healthcare system. Today, Information Technology supports everything from patient registration, food services, facilities management and financial systems to patient care. During the next few years, we will implement IT systems that expand on current capabilities to provide physicians with the state-of-the-art information tools they need to care for their patients.”
In the early1990s, when the organization made the strategic decision to select an IT vendor with integrated functions, as opposed to separate departmental systems, Tony Smith, MD served as a liaison between the medical staff and the hospital. He participated in the implementation of the first modules and worked one-on-one with physicians, helping them learn to use the new technology. Then in the mid-1990s, James “Bill” Dickey, MD, a general surgeon with a keen interest in IT, assumed this liaison role and was later named Director of Clinical Informatics.
 “Many of the systems currently in development involve the availability of information that we need as physicians to make critical decisions about the care of our patients,” says Dr. Dickey. “While we have always depended on the input of our medical staff to select and implement information technologies that impact patient care and patient safety, Sam Downing had the vision of a working committee, comprised of physicians from a diverse range of specialties that would take the process to the next level. He and Drew Wilson, MD, then Chief of Staff, formed the Physician Informatics Technology Steering Committee (PITSC). We had our first meeting in June.”
Meeting quarterly, PITSC members are: Bill Dickey, MD, General Surgery, Chair; David Kasting, MD, Neonatology, Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Thomas Mustoe, MD, Cardiology, Invasive Cardiology; Audrey Parks, Director of Information Technology; David Perrott, MD, Senior Vice President/Medical Director for Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital; Allen Radner, MD, Infectious Disease; Neil Rudo, MD, General, Vascular and Thoracic Surgery; and Andrew Wilson, MD, Pathology.
“Our mission is to proactively support the goals of the medical staff with information technologies,” says Audrey Parks, Director of Information Technology for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. This includes technologies that enhance the quality of patient care, coordination of physician-managed patient care activities, and those that provide an integrated system for timely, accessible and relevant information.”
 “There is an ever-growing consensus that our country needs an interconnected electronic health information system that can support the needs of physicians, nurses and other care providers, as well as patients, policymakers and others,” says Dr. Perrott. “In fact, in 1999, Congress directed the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to, among other initiatives, research and develop systems that would enable a patient to walk into any healthcare provider in the country and the physicians there could access information vital to their care. We’ve already made tremendous strides in building an infrastructure in our own healthcare system that supports patient safety and high-quality patient care, but the next few years will usher in a whole new dimension of access to information.”
The strategic plan for Salinas Valley Memorial outlines a number of Information Technology initiatives already in some form of development, pilot testing or implementation. Each of these systems will put information—from up-to-the-minute notes from the charts of inpatients and all types of diagnostic images to on-line prescription ordering and a complete Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system—literally in the hands of our medical staff, from anywhere in the world.
The EMR will integrate information for each patient in a single database that can be accessed by all of the patient’s care providers throughout Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. “Many patients receive care from a team of physicians dispersed throughout our healthcare system,” says Dr. Perrott. “The EMR will not only improve the coordination of care between various specialists, it will also enhance patient safety by giving each member of the care team access to the exact same information.”
 With Computerized Provider Order Entry—currently used in the Emergency Department, physicians on the medical staff will be able to enter their own orders directly into the information system. And the Electronic Medication Administration Record will allow them to access real-time, computerized records of a patient’s medications, ordered by any medical staff physician.
While the information system currently has the capability to transmit images such as those from CT, MRI and other scanning technologies via computer, PACS, Picture Archiving and Communications System, will greatly expand those abilities.
With advanced security and privacy controls in place, physicians will be able to log-on to our website and review diagnostic and cardiac images regardless of the location. The Mobile Care Technologies will put vital patient care information and documentation in the palm of the physician’s hand. Using PDAs (personal digital assistants) and specialized notebook computers, physicians will be able to securely access information, place orders and confer with specialists from anywhere, anytime.
“When it comes to medical and information technologies, the future is already here,” says John Fletcher, Senior Vice President/Finance & Information Technology. “Our ultimate goal is to leverage our leadership in technology to provide the very best of patient care for people throughout our region.” |
Part three: Tomorrow