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Putnam Hospital Center Emergency Department Implements Complete Electronic Medical Record System From Emergisoft to Increase Patient Safety and Improve Clinical Workflow

Posted on: Thursday, 17 August 2006, 15:00 CDT

Health Quest Affiliated Hospital To Lead Charge In Coupling Superior Emergency Services with Latest Emergisoft Web-Based Information System Technologies

Putnam Hospital Center of Carmel, New York has implemented Emergisoft Corporation's Emergency Department Information System, EmergisoftED(TM), to enhance the quality, efficiency and safety of its emergency department. The implementation and use of Emergisoft's patient tracking and comprehensive clinical documentation technologies has created a total electronic medical record environment in Putnam Hospital Center's emergency department which sees over 25,000 patients a year.

"EmergisoftED is a complete emergency medicine software package with competent clinical content that follows what actually happens in emergency medicine workflow. EmergisoftED is not something that was adapted from office systems and this fact was critical to our staff in our two year evaluation process," said Dr. Michael Sama, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine for Putnam Hospital Center. "Emergency Medicine is such a complex practice that it encompasses virtually every aspect of the hospital experience in one department. The Emergency Department has also largely become the front door to the hospital and it is critical to begin electronic documentation from the onset of care. We needed a system that not only met our clinicians' needs, but also the needs of our IT department and administration and we found it in EmergisoftED."

"Putnam Hospital Center is setting a standard for hospitals across the nation to follow when it comes to the implementation of electronic medical records in the emergency setting. While Emergisoft has generated more than six million emergency department electronic medical records, less than ten percent of America's emergency rooms have any type of electronic medical record today," said Emergisoft President, Jay Flynn. "Putnam Hospital Center officials, by leading this charge, can now electronically monitor in real time the exact status of all issues surrounding patient care from the moment they enter the Emergency Department through the continuum of care. In addition, implementing EmergisoftED allows Putnam Hospital Center to conduct automated syndromic surveillance reporting to local and state health departments including the CDC."

The Emergisoft system eliminates the issues of medical errors surrounding illegible handwriting and reduces patient wait times by allowing hospital administrators to find and immediately address bottlenecks that may exist in the workflow process. This ability is managed by an electronic time stamp at each and every step of the patient encounter. In addition, patients will be tracked electronically by a large plasma screen monitor that enables clinicians to view immediately total patient wait time and also be alerted when lab orders, x-rays and beds are available.

"The Emergisoft Team was incredibly helpful and very supportive before, during and after the system went live," said Patti Greenwood-O'Keefe, Director of Emergency Services for Putnam Hospital Center. "The Emergisoft staff in the department could almost sense when someone was about to encounter a problem and intervened 99.9% of the time and eliminated any staff frustration with the new system. Emergisoft even changed their schedule to accommodate us and provide more night support coverage to help make this project a success."

Putnam Hospital Center, a Health Quest affiliated hospital, chose EmergisoftED, the healthcare industry's leading Emergency Department Information System (EDIS), because of its ease of use, proven ability to integrate with Siemens, commitment to new technologies, and because EmergisoftED is a truly comprehensive solution encompassing every workflow need within the emergency department. EmergisoftED is also the only fully web and ".Net" architecture based system that hospitals can acquire today. Emergisoft also encompasses Computerized Physician Order Entry, a feature desired by many of the nation's healthcare technology leaders.

About Putnam Hospital Center

Putnam Hospital Center (PHC) is a 164-bed not-for-profit acute care hospital offering the highest quality medical, surgical, psychiatric, pediatric and obstetrical/gynecological care, as well as 24-hour emergency services and home health care. The hospital, which affiliated with Health Quest in May 2001, has 110 medical/surgical beds, a 10-bed intensive care unit, a 10-bed pediatric unit, a 14-bed maternity unit and a 20-bed adult psychiatric unit; a full range of inpatient and outpatient services are offered.

Located on Stoneleigh Avenue in Carmel, New York, PHC serves a growing population of more than 150,000 men, women and children who live and work in Putnam, northern Westchester and southern Dutchess counties. It is Putnam County's largest employer with approximately 1000 employees and has a staff of over 300 highly qualified physicians, surgeons and allied health professionals.

About Emergisoft

Emergisoft empowers clinicians, hospital administrators and government health agencies with the ability to electronically document and retrieve complete patient, departmental workflow, and syndromic surveillance data from America's Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Clinics in real-time. Emergisoft brings safety and efficiency to America's emergency rooms through our web-based electronic medical records system, EmergisoftED. With more than 15 years of pure emergency room experience and clinical content management, Emergisoft's Emergency Department Information Systems ("EDIS") provide unprecedented access to real-time clinical and administrative information, which can be used to streamline workflow, drive process improvements, optimize outcomes and support HIPAA compliance across the entire emergency department -- where more than 40 percent of hospital admissions originate. More than 6 million electronic medical records have been created with Emergisoft systems, and more than 3,000 clinicians across the United States are trained on the EmergisoftED system. Emergisoft leads the EDIS industry in interface experience with full system interfaces to Siemens, McKesson, Eclipsys, MEDITECH, CPSI, Cerner and other HIS solutions. Learn more about how our suite of healthcare information solutions can assist your organization today at www.emergisoft.com or call 1-800-682-7729.

Source: Business Wire

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