Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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1 3 6 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) takes patient records seriously. It has to in order to keep its 20 hospitals and more than 500 doctors' offices and outpatient sites connected. The healthcare system's integrated patient records are why it has been named one of the "Most Wired" providers in the country for the past 17 years by Hospitals & Health Networks, the jour- nal of the American Hospital Association. The key to UPMC's success is its integrated electronic medical records, which let doctors and staff pull up a patient's history from nearly anywhere in its facilities, says Steven Whitehurst, MD, anes- thesia and perioperative informatics lead of UPMC. "To me, being 'wired' means having the information available when you need it and where you need it," he says. This ability to pull up X-rays, labs and other patient information is especially key in the OR, says Dr. Whitehurst, where surgeons and anesthetists need to make snap decisions during the case. "In surgery, the point of care is in the OR," he says. "With the integration, we get the information fed to us as we're doing the procedures, so we can see them on the screen and make adjustments as necessary." The equipment also communicates with the records system, says Dr. Whitehurst. UPMC's anesthesia machines digitally record information — like a patient's oxygen satu- ration or blood pressure — that providers used to document manually, and its endoscop- ic video systems can save and send photos to the EMR. Not only does this integrated system make everything more efficient and let the mas- sive health system treat more patients, says Dr. Whitehurst, it also ensures those patients are getting the best care possible. "You're making things safer," he says. "Complications cost money. You can avoid bad out- comes if you have more information on hand. I know that we can catch more now based off of the EMR information we see in the OR." — Kendal Gapinski MOST WIRED UPMC Stays Ahead of the Game With its Patient Records z WIRED The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is one of the "Most Wired" facilities in the nation. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center