Brookings Health System

News

As the country moves to transform healthcare with the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Brookings Health System is leading the way in South Dakota by receiving the Stage 6 designation by HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption model, making Brookings Health System the first South Dakota hospital to achieve such a designation. This distinction honors Brookings Health System's accomplishments to implement technology solutions that have ability to improve patient safety and quality of care.

With an almost paperless environment, Stage 6 hospitals are positioned to successfully address many of the expected industry transformations, such as HIPAA Claims Attachment, pay for performance, and government quality reporting programs. There are a total of 8 stages (0-7) on this measurement model with the goal of reaching Stage 7 - operating in an environment where paper charts are not used to manage the delivery of patient care, and clinical data is used for performance improvement and analytics of care delivery.

In 2009, as tracked through the HIMSS Analytics Database, only 1.6 percent of hospitals had achieved Stage 6 capabilities. The hospitals ranked as stage 6 have implemented advanced clinical applications that improve patient safety and care delivery outcomes.

"Strong leadership, support, and teamwork were crucial to our success," said Brian Sterud, Director of Information Management at Brookings Health System. "By working as a team, and soliciting physician feedback throughout the duration of the project, we were able to get everyone on the same page and secure the buy-in we needed to move forward."

"At Brookings Health System we are committed to providing our patients with the most advanced technologies available and creating safer systems for improved patient quality and outcomes," said Roger Oberg President and CEO of Brookings Health System. "Reaching Stage 6 reaffirms that we are taking the right steps to achieve our goals and serve our patients."

He added, "By achieving this medical record sophistication, we serve as role model in healthcare IT adoption for other healthcare systems in our state that are just beginning this process."

Brookings Health System began the implementation process of its new technology solution in June 2007. The implementation of the modules was handled in phases and included all clinical and financial software.

EMR technology offers many benefits to consumers. The new system improves the patient experience and patient safety. With central scheduling and registration, the consumers are asked demographic information during their first visit and the information flows to all modules. Complete visit histories are electronically stored for each patient over the course of an entire lifetime and patient information is updated on a real-time basis each time a physician order is placed.

The system also provides physicians with improved access to patient information and gives them decision support. The system prompts automated checks for drug and allergic interactions and will reduce medication errors.