Park Ridge Hospital joins other Adventist Health System (AHS) hospitals in implementing iConnect, a state-of-the-art automated clinical information system that will support the delivery of more effective and more efficient patient care at the bedside. “Go live” implementation is scheduled to take place at the end of this month.
“With improved patient safety, communications and information-sharing as its focus, this quality care initiative will allow us to provide technologically superior support in the patient care setting,” said Karen Owensby, Park Ridge Hospital’s Vice President of Clinical Services.
Contracting with Cerner Corporation, a worldwide leader in hospital clinical information systems, AHS and its hospitals have worked with the Kansas City-based company since late 2002 to build and design an enterprise-wide system that integrates the patient care process at every level, from admission to discharge. This new information technology gives physicians and employees access on a “need to know” basis to one complete electronic medical record that:
- Is available at the point of care or patient bedside,
- Can be updated in real time,
- Allows immediate access to patient histories, lab and x-ray reports, and other test results,
- Provides alerts to potential problems resulting from medication errors, including allergies and negative drug-drug and drug-food interactions,
- Permits access to patient information from multiple locations, at any time, and by multiple users and
- Optimizes communications and information-sharing among all caregivers.
These basic benefits of the electronic medical record help the clinician enhance patient care, improve patient safety and security, reduce medical risk and save time.
“The system is able to monitor, understand, manage, measure and critique the vast amount of information that is generated daily throughout the patient care process,” explained Owensby. “As a result, caregivers have more time to spend with our patients,” she said.
Melissa Clark, Park Ridge Hospital’s Director of Clinical Informatics, serves as iConnect project manager. In that role, she has helped with the overall design and build of the clinical software, the identification of computer and other hardware needed to support the information system, the development of training modules, and the onsite system testing.
“Since the implementation of iConnect will impact every hospital department, clinical specialists, ancillary staff and other hospital employees have contributed significantly to the development of this new patient management system,” said Clark. “With workstation renovations, the installation of new computer equipment and more frequent visits by the corporate project management team, everyone’s excitement is really growing,” she said.
Park Ridge Hospital is an acute care facility that has provided superior medical care with Christian compassion since 1910. The hospital is one of 37 hospitals in the U.S. belonging to Adventist Health System. For more information about Park Ridge Hospital, or about other hospital services, visit www.parkridgehospital.org. To request a copy of the Park Ridge Hospital Physician Directory, contact the Business Development office at (828) 681-2687.