EKG Report Management Simplified at Norman Regional with Access's UDP
Universal Document Portal Eliminates Manual Tasks and Interfaces EKG Strips Directly into Meditech Scanning and Archiving Module
Sulphur Springs, Texas (PRWEB) June 4, 2009
Healthcare organizations typically struggle to manage output from clinical monitoring devices such as EKG and fetal monitors and glucometers, as there has been no easy way to interface the output into document management systems to be incorporated into electronic medical records (EMR).
As at many facilities, staff at Norman Regional's heart stations and in the HIM department found managing EKG reports time-consuming. Administrators looked for a way to improve the process.
"We needed a way to get EKG reports directly into patient records, and anytime we want to interface information into Meditech's scanning module we turn to Access," said Beth Summers, decision support system analyst.
Access's Universal Document Portal (UDP) captures EKG report print streams and indexes them directly into Meditech Scan Archive, where they are automatically linked to patient records in the Meditech HIS.
"We'd recently purchased a new EKG system and UDP is the final piece of the technology puzzle at our heart stations," said Christie Walkup, senior financial analyst.
One of the benefits offered by UDP is a reduction in manual tasks. Before deploying the product, staff members prepared an EKG report and printed it. HIM personnel then selected the appropriate patient in Meditech and scanned the report. With UDP, managing EKG reports is completely automated.
"Using UDP means staff at our heart stations don't have to scan anything into the record and we've eliminated a cumbersome manual process," Summers said.
A further advantage UDP provides is elimination of potential human errors from Norman Regional's EKG report management.
"Before we had UDP there was the possibility of personnel selecting the wrong patient in Meditech before they scanned the EKG report, and this wouldn't have been noticed until later," Walkup said. "Now we know each report is going to the right place in a timely manner, and the image will be of good diagnostic quality."
The success of any IT project rests upon the skills of the professional services team that facilitate its deployment. Summers finds that Access's staff members have exceeded Norman Regional's expectations in this area.
"As with the other components of our forms automation solution, Access's project planning and service with our UDP implementation was the best," she said. "Their implementation and support teams consistently go above and beyond to get us what we need."
In addition to improving EKG report management, UDP can capture feeds from fetal monitors, glucometers and other clinical monitoring devices and automatically index them in Meditech Scan Archive or any other document management system for easy and seamless assimilation into the EMR.
"UDP is a versatile utility that has great possibilities for our other clinical devices," Walkup said.
About Access
Access provides electronic forms and workflow automation solutions to hundreds of healthcare organizations worldwide. Access products create time and cost savings facility-wide, and integrate with existing HIS, ERP, clinical and document management systems to deliver maximum return on investment. Ease of use, administration and expansion provide even greater value. Learn more about Access solutions at www. accesseforms. com.
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