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Two years ago a community task force
identified the top ten priority health care needs for our
community. Establishing an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) was
the third highest ranked community need. It is a huge and
complex project. An effective well designed and appropriately
utilized EMR can truly improve health care safety, quality and
efficiency on behalf of the patients and families we serve.
A comprehensive community-wide EMR would give health care
providers instant access to patients’ medical records. That
means faster and more accurate diagnoses, elimination of
duplicative paperwork and testing, higher quality care and
significant cost savings for patients, physicians, other care
providers and for Lee Memorial Health System.
In its simplest uses, an EMR will enable patients to avoid
filling out their medical histories every time they go to a new
doctor. Parents can review their child’s vaccine records online.
And grown children will be able to review their parents’ medical
conditions firsthand, rather than relying on secondhand
information, assuming they have been authorized to access the
information.
But an EMR is so much more. It will enable us to identify health
trends, such as problems with a certain medication, at a much
faster rate. We will be able to perform what is called “clinical
surveillance,” or monitoring a community or national health
scare such as the swine flu outbreak, much more effectively. And
that is just the tip of the iceberg!
A comprehensive EMR is not inexpensive. LMHS has already
invested $5 million to install the EMR technology—called Epic—in
the Emergency Departments at Cape Coral Hospital, HealthPark
Medical Center and Lee Memorial Hospital, as well as in more
than half of the Lee Physician Group offices. It will take an
additional $70 million to complete the project throughout our
System!
We have been slowly investing LMHS’ capital to implement this
project, but we have never had enough to do this on a timely or
comprehensive basis. Now, we have some financial assistance.
If LMHS has Epic fully functioning by 2013, the health system
should meet the criteria for federal stimulus dollars through
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This Act has set
aside $19 billion for hospitals and health systems to establish
EMRs. The federal government’s goal is to eventually support the
national exchange of EMR information. Imagine the possibilities!
Funds will be divided among hospitals meeting the federally
approved EMR criteria based on a formula of each hospital’s
Medicare and Medicaid patient caseloads. With an excess of 60
percent of LMHS’ patients eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, our
early estimates indicate LMHS could receive as much as $40
million in stimulus funds specific for the development our EMR.
To qualify for all of these funds, LMHS must have the EMR in
place throughout the health system. This will take place in
stages. The next step is to have Epic fully in place at Gulf
Coast Medical Center by 2011. Then by 2012, all LMHS hospitals
will have the new technology, and by 2013, Epic will be
installed in all LPG and employed specialists’ offices.
The health system also intends to “link up” with interested
community physicians who are not employed by LMHS. Early
exploratory discussions are already underway with local
physicians who are also trying to figure out how best to plan
for and implement EMRs in their offices.
There is so much happening with electronic medical records in
the near future. This is an exciting opportunity for our
community and LMHS. We will soon be able to provide access to
the most complete information so that it saves our patients, and
our caregivers, valuable time in paperwork and reduce
redundancies currently found in the health care environment.
Even more importantly it can improve coordination of care and
improve quality and patient safety.
Our entire goal is to help our patient’s journey be just a
little easier. With one less thing to worry about, patients can
focus on what’s really important…getting better.
Peace,
Jim Nathan, LMHS President
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