CHIME Case Study Details Steps Of Hospital EHR Deployment

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

The College Of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has released a case study focused on Chadron Community Hospital & Health Services. The study tracks Chadron’s five-year growth from a system working entirely with paper records to its current status, with physician staff who are comfortable with the EHR, and a system that gives providers quick access to care-crucial information. This includes allowing clinicians to query state records of immunizations on patients, and pulling images from digital radiological systems via their EHR.

According to Chadron’s CIO Anna Turman, “We went from a complete paper record to completely paperless, and when you do that, the computer becomes one of the training aspects. Even while preliminary planning was under way, the hospital began to offer staff classes in how to use computers and productivity software, and email was used as a tool to get workers used to communicating electronically. Our goal was to have users reach a high comfort level with technology.”

Preparation

Chadron did the due diligence of looking at its work processes before engaging vendor selection. As Turman relates, “We asked ourselves how we were going to provide care at the bedside. Were we going to use computers on carts and have nurses wheel them to the bedside, or would we have fixed workstations in each room? We wanted to figure how we could make the transition easier and be most conducive to our workflow and quality care. We took an in-depth looked (sic) at the processes, and the staff, and training before we actually selected a vendor.”

Chadron took about a year in the process of gathering vendor information, comparing offerings and observing product demos from solutions providers before they finally decided on a system from Keane.

Implementation

After deciding on a system, Chadron had about six months to complete implementation and training. The organization ended up automating areas including pharmacy, the emergency department, physical therapy, human resource, and the financial department. Chadron is currently looking forward to Meaningful Use Stage 2, and ICD-10 implementation.

Going Deeper

The full CHIME case study can be accessed here.

To get a step ahead and answer questions for your clients like the ones Chadron had to answer pre-vendor selection, read, “3 EHR Data Questions Your Healthcare Clients Are Asking Today.”