Taking the fear out of going live

Conversion easier than expected as hospital moves from legacy system to progressive HMS technology

Just two years ago Jamie Carter, chief executive officer of Crittenden Regional Hospital, was trying to make the acute-care facility more progressive. One major obstacle stood in the way of providing cutting-edge patient care: the hospital’s information system.

Crittenden Regional, a 152-bed facility serving West Memphis, Ark., and surrounding counties, was still using an antiquated legacy system to process vital operational, clinical and financial data. The system was so outdated that only Crittenden Regional and one other hospital in the entire country were still using it.

“What we had was so expensive to support, and the technology was so old,” Carter says. “We couldn’t get the information we wanted out of it.”

To move forward, Carter knew that the hospital needed an up-to-date, cost-effective information system that was strong and reliable, but also offered flexibility and room for growth. HMS met his criteria.

“We wanted to make sure we bought a system that had a good EHR (electronic health record) solution as well as a robust financial system,” Carter says. “HMS offered the full package.”

The hospital spent 18 months reviewing different systems and gathering referrals from facilities that used them, and “everywhere we went, people were extremely happy with the HMS system,” Carter says. “We got great feedback from customers who were already using it.”

In October 2009, the hospital implemented most of the HMS financial solutions, along with its Order Communications and lab, radiology and pharmacy applications. Despite the challenges that normally come with transferring data from a legacy system to a new one, Carter says the transition was seamless.

“Normally, you hear horror stories about going live, but we didn’t have them,” he says. “It went really well—more smoothly than any implementation I had been a part of before. HMS took the fear out of the go-live process.”

The training HMS provided before going live, and the tracking and follow-up the company has offered since, helped ease the adjustment. Carter praises the HMS implementation team.

“We were able to deal with the same people throughout the entire process,” he says. “They were familiar with us, and we were familiar with them, so there was a comfort level.”

Though the system is still new, Carter is already beginning to see the payoff. “We’re saving $3,000 to $4,000 a month, just on maintaining the system,” he says.

The hospital’s department directors use the HMS dashboards to keep tabs on basic information they need to help do their jobs—from daily reports on admissions, discharges and collections to the detailed breakdown of cases in the hospital, the physicians assigned to those cases and patients’ length of stay.

“We can design a report that pulls from all of the files and send it out at one time so no one has to go searching for the information,” says Carol McCormack, Crittenden Regional’s vice president of organizational effectiveness.

HMS has also helped the hospital update its hardware, which makes using the technology easier, McCormack adds. “The system is much faster than before,” she says.

The capability to scan in documents from driver’s licenses to insurance cards and pull patient information electronically also saves time for everyone, from clerks admitting patients to staff who are processing payments. The business office, which used to use a pegboard and carbonized ledger paper to keep up with receipts, can now store and access them in a click.

“We’re maneuvering much better now than we were before,” said David Calvin, director of the business office and patient accounting. “The HMS system complements what we already had really well.”

HMS’ materials management module, an on-line purchasing and inventory system, has streamlined the ordering process for the hospital, giving “everyone the capability to place an order without filling out any piece of paper,” McCormack says.

“Whether it’s a surgery nurse who needs an implant for a hip or an executive assistant ordering three boxes of file folders, they can go to an icon on their desktop and click on department requisitions to get what they need. They don’t have to walk to the storeroom anymore,” she says. “That might seem minuscule, but it’s huge in efficiency for us.”

Lab and pharmacy functions at the hospital are integrated with the HMS Order Communications module, which gives clinicians immediate access to order details and results, and enhances communication between departments.

“The system is integrated and everything is computerized, so when a nurse in the ER puts an order in, it prints out in the lab,” Carter says. “There isn’t as much paper going back and forth. Clinicians can see updated results on a dashboard on their computer, so the lab doesn’t have to fax reports up to the floor.”

Pulling lab results straight from order requests instead of having to call and wait for them saves time for Alison Earnshaw, R.N., who directs the hospital’s professional and clinical education programs.

“It’s very intuitive and easy for clinicians to catch onto,” she says. “We can create lists of common orders and tailor them to each department. We can even put them in fast-pick menus, which gives physicians a visual of all their common orders. They can click four or five of what they need to order rather than going through and putting each one in individually.”

The technology has improved tracking in the pharmacy, providing clinicians with a more accurate count of individual doses given and dispensed, Earnshaw says.

The system is also user-friendly, she adds. “You don’t have arbitrary codes attached to things,” she says. “The codes make sense and the search options are easy to use. If there is a term described by a certain name throughout the facility, you can search for it like that and immediately find it.”

Educational resources, such as the e-learning modules HMS provides for hospital staff, “have helped synchronize us as an institution,” McCormack says. “HMS helped us not only learn and understand the system, but also broaden our horizons and cross-train.”

With government incentives on the horizon for hospitals that show meaningful use of technology, Crittenden Regional administrators hope to partner with HMS to add EHR and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) to their growing list of technology initiatives.

McCormack has been pleased with the HMS customer service, which she describes as “very responsive.”

“If I ever send a complaint, I get a phone call within minutes from someone who helps talk me through the situation,” she says. “I’ve been delighted with the customer support.”

And McCormack feels confident about the hospital’s partnership with HMS going forward.

“The fact that HMS has all of its certifications together, understands the regulations and is ahead of the curve on that—that is critical to us,” she says.