Elkhart General and Memorial Top 15% in Nation

Congratulations to Elkhart General Hospital and Memorial Hospital on both being recognized nationally for their hard work in improving how patient information is used throughout the health system to improve patient care. Elkhart General and Memorial have achieved Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Stage 6 adoption of the Electronic Health Record. This recognition does not just apply to Cerner, but all of the clinical applications that we utilize.

Both hospitals were noted as having high physician adoption and significant portions of a patient’s record electronic throughout their care. HIMSS was particularly impressed with our use of Cerner to help improve our Surgical Care Improvement Project quality scores (ensuring patients receive the right medicines at the right time on the day of their surgery), including reminders to remove foley catheters and alerts that patients should have a beta blocker ordered.

This places Elkhart General and Memorial in the top 15 percent of hospitals in the United States when it comes to the use of our advanced electronic health records system. The outstanding work by all those involved is helping in clinical quality, patient safety, improved communication and operational efficiencies.

Steve Huffman, Beacon Chief Information Officer; Ken Elek, M.D., Memorial Chief Medical Information Officer; and Tom Mellin, M.D., Elkhart General Chief Medical Information Officer, send a special thanks to Information Systems, Nursing, all Physicians and Nursing Informatics.

Special thanks to the following individuals for their important contributions: Bev Teegarden, Vice President of Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Memorial; Karra Heggen, VP of Nursing at Elkhart General; Cheryl A. Wibbens, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs at Memorial; and Genevieve Lankowicz, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs at Elkhart General.

“Implementing Electronic Health Records is not easy for anyone,” says Steve Huffman, Beacon CIO.

“With system improvements and improved patient care as our focus, we all were able to show that we have improved our processes significantly. Everyone at Elkhart General and Memorial should feel proud that their hard work resulted in such great recognition.”

Drs. Mellin and Elek are appreciative of all who helped in making this effort a reality across the health system.

“Elkhart General had planned to adopt a different inpatient computerized physician order entry system in the fall of 2012,” says Dr. Mellin. “Then the affiliation occurred, Beacon was born, and we were able to upgrade to a better electronic medical record with the help of our new partners from Memorial. It was a wild ride, but we went live with Cerner on June 24, 2013 thanks to the amazing work done by Information Systems and clinical staffs at both hospitals. Our physicians have been incredibly cooperative in this endeavor, many thanks to them for making this happen.”

“I’m amazed every day at the level of teamwork achieved in Beacon Health System to move in the right direction when it comes to taking good care of our patients,” says Dr. Elek. “With patient care as our focusing point, it naturally leads us as a team to achieving the level of integration necessary to provide that care in the best way possible.”