St. Francis Hospital & Health Services is pleased to announce that it will launch the Epic Electronic Health Record (EHR) on March 31, 2012.
For St. Francis as well as other entities in the SSM Health Care system, this process has been given the title Project Beacon. This new electronic health record will help physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, radiologic technologists, lab technicians, and others involved in care, steer patients efficiently and safely through their health care experience.
“This major initiative is critical to the continued success of our mission in the 21st Century,” says Tom Langston, SSM Health Care’s Chief Information Officer. “The long-term benefits of implementing the EHR will be recognized at nearly every level of SSM Health Care and, most importantly, by every patient that visits one of our hospitals.”
The phased launch of Project Beacon began in the Wisconsin and St. Louis markets in early 2006. The development of the integrated EHR network across the entire SSM system is expected to take nine years.
The driving force of Project Beacon is patient safety and information security. According to a study by the Institute of Medicine, one of every seven primary care visits is affected by missing medical information. The goal of this new project is to place all medical information where it is readily accessible to anyone providing care at any SSM facility.
By doing so, caregivers can make focused and informed decisions based on all available information. With near-instant access - the nurse spends less time collecting medical history and the physician spends less time searching for notes from previous visits and more time with the patient. This means less waiting for the patient as well.
But, the impact of hours and minutes on patient care is just one facet of Project Beacon. Additional information regarding the changes that the EHR will have on patients, prescriptions, and other aspects of care at St. Francis Hospital & Health Services will be published as the project progresses.