The Ohio State University Health System, all OSU medical facilities on and off campus, was named one of the top 100 “Most Wired” hospitals and health systems in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association.
“When physicians do the (bed) rounds, no longer do they take a notepad, but they take a laptop computer, and go bedside to bedside,” said Asif Ahmad, chief information officer for OSU Health System.
Medical staff who are given security access can retrieve patient information from home or office, remotely or nearby.
“The beauty is you can find all of the information on the patient no matter where you are geographically located,” Ahmad said. The computerized system provides many advantages over paper records and charts.
“It’s extremely more secure than leaving films and paper around. Paper (records) could be burned up, lost, get spilled on, all kinds of things can happen,” said Phyllis Teater, director of applications for OSU Health System.
This electronic system allows multiple users to look at a patient’s records at once, which paper records could not do. According to Phil Skinner, director of telecommunications for OSU Health System, electronic records also reduce costs to the hospital.
“We save money, there’s no need for delivery of films (for images), and chemicals to process the films, we can cut the positions needed for full time employees dedicated to moving the film around,” Skinner said.
Patients can now request a copy of their images on CD-ROM. Patients and physicians no longer have to wait hours or days to get the results on their results from radiology.
Security is a top priority at the OSU Health System. Many steps are taken to ensure patient confidentiality. There are security encryptions, prolific firewalls so hackers can’t get in as easily, password protections, password time outs, and patient records can only be on the screen for a certain amount of time. Within the system, there are security programs that can track who is logging in and what patient information is accessed in cases of illegal access.
“What can be copied, added, or deleted are tightly controlled, people can’t add non-software systems to the program,” Ahmad said.
Still, there is a concern from the medical industry. Patient privacy regulations require a steady balance between access and privacy.
“Because it’s an electronic system, it is much more concerning to folks. It is extremely more secure than leaving films and paper around. With a computer system, it seems to raise the bar in terms of security,” Teater said. “Because of that widespread availability, it’s good and bad.”
Teater said there have not been any breaches in security to her knowledge.
Computerized Access Patient Information is used to access patient information although there are many different systems used to supply all patient information at the OSU Health System. A few of the operating systems used are UNIX, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and other main frame systems. Computerized patient information began in the early 1990s but has been a step by step process. Skinner said implementing the system went smoothly with few problems.
“It was just getting people, physicians and the nursing staff used to using the computers. Physicians are very busy and you don’t want to add to their workload,” Skinner said. The computer system has been widely deployed for the last two or three years.
The 100 “Most Wired” hospitals and health systems were composed by Deloitte Consulting and McKesson HBOC poll as well as Hospitals & Health Networks. HBOC is one of the largest providers of hospital information systems. “Hospitals & Health Networks is a nationally reputed publication that is independent from any involvement with Ohio State,” Ahmad said. It polled the nation’s hospitals on how well they used the Internet and computer to improve health care to patients.
