Aloha,

Hard to believe but it’s been close to eight months since our project start date on September 1, 2011.  And although a great deal of preliminary work has been done,  a lot of HHSC hospital

and corporate staff along with Siemens representatives continue to be  actively involved in completing  Stage 3, the Design, Configuration and Unit Test phase.  They are involved in many,  

ongoing work sessions to make sure that an effective EMR design that links our core functions is developed. 

The major activity for the upcoming weeks involves TESTING, TESTING, and more TESTING by all of the clinical and financial teams.  The first part of testing over the next few weeks will begin

with individual units, followed by testing involving all of units at the same time.  Then starting early July and through mid-October, more TESTING can be expected to ensure that all of the teams and units are able to both communicate with and support each other simultaneously.

At the same time, the Physicians Advisory Group continues  to focus its attention on the development of physician order sets, sometimes referred to as Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE).   It’s a set of important physician instructions and orders for the treatment of patients, which are transmitted over our EMR network to the nursing staff or departments (laboratory, pharmacy, or radiology) responsible for fulfilling the order.  CPOE makes hospital operations more effective and efficient in many ways such as reducing errors related to illegible handwriting, decreases delay in order completion, eliminates duplicate or incorrect tests or prescribed doses, in addition to simplifying inventory and posting of charges. 

In the upcoming weeks, our IT network will also be upgraded to make sure that it is able to handle the needs of our new EMeRGE system.  The effort will involve installation of new equipment, high-speed fiber-option cable, and wireless technology.

A one-day, face-to-face meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 23 in Honolulu, involving many of your active facility representatives involved in the EMeRGE project who along the Siemens team, Steering Committee, Project Manager Office, and Executive Management Team, will review the progress of the first three stages, and get a better understanding of the next steps prior to the  ”Going Live” schedule. 

Lastly, the Device Fair Selection Committee got a chance to inspect the EMR system at Straub Hospital on May 2.  The information will most certainly help the committee in deciding which devices are most appropriate and functional  to best accommodate the  EMR needs of our acute, long-term and critical access facilities. 

We invite you to share your feedback about the HHSC EMeRGE project at EMR@hhsc.org.  And stay informed about the latest HHSC EMeRGE updates and news via the following links:

• HHSC EMR Intranet Website, http://intranet/emrupdate/ (for HHSC users)
• HHSC EMR Internet Website, http://www.hhsc.org/emrupdate/index.html (for everyone)

Mahalo,

Kay Richford

HHSC EMeRGE Interim Project Manager

krichford@hhsc.org

(808) 733-4074