PMID: 16395050

Issn Print: 0744-6314

Publication Date: 2006/01/01


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Bring the EHR to life

Candace DeWar

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Excerpt

The Susquehanna Health System (SHS) is a three-hospital system located in central Pennsylvania, with 450 licensed acute care beds and 139 long-term care beds. The system admits approximately 14,000 patients annually, and performs 16,000 outpatient surgeries. More than 3,000 employees work at SHS, 630 of which are hospital-based registered nurses.
Ten years ago, SHS formulated a vision for creating an electronic healthcare record (EHR) that would be a birth-to-death repository for patient clinical information. Information technology (IT) became an integral part of the organization’s strategic planning. The board of directors and corporate team decided to heavily invest in an IT infrastructure that would improve patient safety and enable clinicians to make more informed healthcare decisions. They developed a multi-year plan, which is updated on an annual basis through SHS’s IT steering committee and incorporated into corporate objectives and decision points. This ongoing process will culminate in a paperless hospital.
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