Three phases of EDIS: installation of a comprehensive emergency department information system enables a Virginia IDN to revitalize its ED services - What works: EDIS

Health Management Technology, March, 2003

In eliminating paper ED charting by capturing order information in the EDIS and using COLD feed to send it to our document management/HIM system, we estimated we have saved more than $68,000 in chart costs alone.

In terms of CPOE, which rolled out last November, we believe that a potential existed for up to 6,500 medication errors based on 140,000 ED visits. According to the Healthcare Advisory Board, 56 percent of errors are attributable to physician, nurse or secretarial transcription errors. The potential exists to have averted 3,640 medication errors per year in our EDs.

Estimates are that Carilion could have spent a total of 833 labor hours in correcting these incomplete or illegible orders. At $17 per hour, it would cost us $14,161 just to manage this issue. Once physicians are all entering medication orders in the system, that cost will be eliminated. We have also eliminated the potential for lost ancillary systems results, since all results reports are computerized.

By integrating the five EDs into one data repository, we can now detect patients who visit multiple hospitals. These patients are often at high risk for abuse (e.g., spousal abuse, elder abuse) or are seeking increased access to drugs. Now we can identify them immediately and treat appropriately.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the ICMS system allows us to take snapshots of the Carilion emergency departments to benchmark treatment practices, and it has given us reporting capability to compare practice variations and assess outcomes among the five EDs. It has taken us three years, but today we are more able to efficiently deliver the quality care we seek for all Carilion emergency patients-and to do so with consistency and cost-effectiveness.

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SOURCES
Walt Fisher, M.C.S.E.
Senior Applications Analyst
Information Services
Carillon Health Systems
wfisher@carilion.com

E.W. Tibbs, R.N., B.S.N., M.B.A.
Vice President
Emergency Services, OR and
  Trauma Services
Carillon Health Systems
Roanoke, VA
etibbs@carilion.com

PRODUCT/COMPANY
Integrated Clinical Management System
Wellsoft Corp.
Somerset, NJ

www.wellsoft.com