All digital hospital transforms patient care

Baptist Medical Center South is one of the first truly digital hospitals in the nation.

Baptist Health President and CEO A. Hugh Greene said building the $90 million facility in suburban Jacksonville, Fla., represented a unique opportunity to create a patient friendly, family-focused environment that promotes health.

“We had the opportunity to take technology in a different direction through the creation of the first paperless, filmless hospital in our community and one of the few in the country,” he said.

A member of the four-hospital Baptist Health system, Baptist South opened its doors with a complete electronic medical record (EMR) built on the unified Cerner Millennium® architecture.

“We believe we are the first of our kind,” said Roland Garcia, chief information officer, Baptist Health. “We are a community hospital, non-teaching, open medical staff, full-service facility, and we do not operate with a paper medical record.”

Key partnership

Cerner was Baptist’s clear choice of healthcare information technology (HIT) partner.

“I don’t think there could be a better partner than Cerner,” Greene said. “Our success has indicated that we were in the cockpit with the right copilot.”

Cerner “provides the most complete suite of applications across the clinical environment,” said Dr. Keith Stein, chief medical officer, Baptist Health. “In fact, Cerner was designed by clinicians for clinicians, which is unique and beneficial. It was easy to pick Cerner as our partner as we worked toward the very singular objective of opening a private community hospital that was fully digital on its first day.”

IT encourages patient ownership

Dr. Jim Altomare, chief medical information officer, Baptist Health, remembers an elderly pneumonia patient who refused to accept her diagnosis. She asked to go home. Altomare described the dangers of her condition but could not convince her to stay in the hospital.

Finally, Altomare showed her the chest X-ray on his tablet personal computer at her bedside. After pointing out the exact location of the pneumonia, he convinced her to remain hospitalized. Not only did she stay, but she became more interested in her condition and further motivated to regain her health.

“Information technology allows clinicians to spend more time with their patients because the data is available at the bedside,” Altomare said. “As a result, patients can look at their labs, X-rays and EKGs and get more involved in their own care.”

“A lot of things right ...”

In the short amount of time the medical center has been open, compelling stories about satisfaction have emerged. Inpatient satisfaction scores at Baptist South ranked in the 92nd percentile nationally, and outpatient satisfaction scores ranked in the 88th percentile nationally.

“You don’t score at the 92nd percentile if you’re not doing a lot of things right,” said Stephen Lee, assistant administrator, Baptist South. “I think a part of what has allowed us to do things right has been the immediate availability of a wealth of information.”

An efficient and peaceful environment

Baptist South is quiet. It’s one of the first things visitors notice.

“Nurses do not need to flip through charts in clipboards or binders, which typically hold patient records,” said Karen Monk, nursing services director, Baptist South. “We don’t have people asking aloud where a particular patient record is located. These factors truly promote a quieter, more peaceful environment for our patients and their families.”

The EMR has provided workflow-efficiency benefits. At Baptist South, the time from physician order to medication delivery is 16 minutes. At Baptist system facilities that are not fully digital, this 148-step process can take up to two hours.

At Baptist South, the EMR immediately captures the physician’s medication order. Pharmacists then verify the electronic orders and make them available to nurses for administration.

“The electronic medical record gives the patient the sense that his care is continuous, seamless, and he is being passed on to the next competent caregiver,” Monk said.

The Cerner system also helps clinicians effectively deliver multi-disciplinary care.

“I can see the course of care that the pulmonary department took,” said Cathy Nasby, assistant administrator, Baptist South. “I can read the rehabilitation department notes. I can see social services’ current care steps—all in real time, wherever I am. The ability to have the information accessible to any number of users at one time across disciplines is a primary benefit.”

Many hospitals scan significant volumes of paper, such as physician notes and documentation. In contrast, Baptist South scans less than 10 percent of its documents, typically signed consent waivers that are brought in from external sources.

Secure data

Data security is a frequent concern among those wary of HIT. But proponents maintain that an electronic system is more reliable and secure than a paper-based system.

Baptist South’s EMR generates an ID and time stamp each time an individual accesses a record and verifies authorizations. If a security breach occurs, investigators can quickly detect the source and take corrective action. This functionality builds an ongoing electronic history that improves security and helps with insurance and regulatory compliance.

Improved recruiting, retention

Efficiencies from HIT have helped staff recruiting and retention at Baptist South. Doctors can use the EMR to compare their common practice decisions to key benchmarks, Altomare said, helping them become better physicians.

Baptist South’s superior work environment has physicians vying to round at the hospital, Altomare said. Doctors know that HIT delivers complete patient information at the point of care—when and where they need it most.

“Nurses tell administrators, ‘I would not go anywhere else,’” Monk said. HIT “has been a great recruiting tool, encouraging staff to step forward and be part of something new and exciting in the medical world.”

Shared vision

The success at Baptist South will serve as the benchmark to extend HIT to other Baptist Health facilities. Cerner and Baptist Health share a vision of a lifetime medical record that moves with the patient across the community.

“I see a digital hospital as being a key component to, ultimately, a lifetime medical record,” Greene said. “Patients can move across a community and a health information network, with their information following them as they move from doctor’s office to hospital, and from hospital to hospital.”

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