Aug 06 : TriHealth spends $80M to go paperless

HIMSS plans to present its Stage 7 award to TriHealth, which is just the third hospital system in Ohio to receive the honor. Only 3.1 percent of the more than 5,400 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics database have received the award, and it has been presented to only 4.54 percent of the nation’s more than 24,200 ambulatory clinics.

In addition to TriHealth’s four hospitals – Bethesda North in Montgomery, Good Samaritan in University Heights, Bethesda Butler in Hamilton and TriHealth Evendale – the award went to 115 TriHealth ambulatory locations and doctor practices.

About 300 people worked on the conversion to electronic medical records at TriHealth, including doctors and IT experts, said Rick Moore, chief information officer. It costs about $20 million a year to implement, including the hours of employees.

“We’re going to continue to collect data to prove to ourselves and our community and ultimately our nation that this is a good investment,” Moore said.

The shift could provide a way to ensure taxpayer dollars are wisely spent. That’s why the federal government, a provider of health insurance, is reimbursing TriHealth and other hospital systems for part of the cost.

Federal reimbursement will cover less than half of TriHealth’s cost to convert to an electronic records system, Moore said.

“Our plan predated the federal government program,” Moore said. “We were trying to implement clinical electronic medical records to support patient care and safety. It just so happened that the federal government incentives came along after that.

“The federal government wants to be sure these systems are implemented in a way to measure the quality of care,” Moore said. “If you think of the federal government as one of the payers of insurance, it wants to make sure those dollars are being used effectively.

“With a computer system that has integrated medical records, you’ve got all the patient information, everything from allergies to dosages, and the computer behaves as a safety net for the care giver,” Moore said. “The computer provides warnings or advice on best practices.”

Thousands of people were affected by the conversion to electronic medical records, Moore said, including doctors, nurses and the clerical staff. TriHealth has more than 500 doctors and 11,400 other employees.

Aside from TriHealth, the only provider of medical care to adults in Ohio to receive the Stage 7 award is the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center received the award in February.

“We are thrilled to be the only adult hospital system in Cincinnati and second adult system in the state to achieve this high level of technological integration,” said John Prout, CEO of TriHealth. “The HIMSS Stage 7 designation underscores our commitment to patient-centered clinical quality and safety through the use of advanced clinical information systems. The site visit with the HIMSS Analytics officials gave us an opportunity to share our experiences and to recognize our staff and physicians for their work with our patients.”

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