Case Study
Fully Integrated MEDITECH EHR Enhances Patient Care
- Customer: Valley Health System
- Challenge: Implement MEDITECH EHR to improve patient care
Results
- Dramatically improved physician engagement with charting and order technology
- Saved nursing time
- 100% of HIM-coded septic patients identified
- 98% flu vaccine compliance
Background and Challenge
A MEDITECH site since 1996 using MAGIC version 5.66, Valley Health System was on a mission to enhance patient care through the availability of real-time and integrated data. The nonprofit system with 431 licensed beds serves 440,000 residents in 32 New Jersey towns.
Valley’s senior leadership engaged Tegria to implement the full suite of MEDITECH 6.1 applications. Their primary objective was for clinical and financial staff to work collaboratively to build a system that met Valley’s technology, integration, and standardization needs for present and future environments.
Solution
Tegria’s four-phase training approach, including at-the-elbow support for physicians and nurses during launch of the new EHR, contributed to strong physician adoption metrics for the implementation. MEDITECH’s 6.1 Surveillance tool was added to improve early identification of sepsis, both in the ED and on inpatient floors.
Results
Outcomes of the EHR implementation included:
- Dramatically improved physician engagement
- 90% using computerized provider order entry (CPOE), up from 50%
- 92% using PDoc charting technology, up from 24%
- 100% of HIM-coded septic patients identified through electronic surveillance
- 98% flu vaccine compliance, up from 78%
- Significant savings of nursing time
- 30+ minutes saved per nurse per shift in CCU nurse documentation time
- 10-30 minutes saved per nurse per shift in streamlined nursing documentation for all services
- 30 minutes saved in nursing time per shift by eliminating manual counts of central lines and urinary catheters