Hamlin Memorial Hospital Selects Prognosis ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR

HOUSTON, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Hamlin Memorial Hospital is planning to leverage Prognosis ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR to move toward a number of goals such as improving clinical care, meeting the government's meaningful use requirements, and enhancing community health through participation in a growing Texas Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO).

"Like all other providers, we want to improve care and at the same time meet the government's requirements for the incentive payments that are associated with the HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," said Jim Barnett, CEO of Hamlin (Texas) Memorial Hospital.  "To do so, we realized that we not only needed to get a system up and running quickly but we needed a solution that our doctors and nurses would really want to use on a daily basis."

After reviewing several electronic records solutions, Hamlin leaders realized that the ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR offered exactly what the 25-bed, acute care hospital needed. ChartAccess is a shared web-native EHR system, delivered via a "cloud computing" model, where the software applications are made available as a service over an encrypted health information network. The EHR provides clinicians with a complete view of patient data to support optimal and safe clinical care. Users can simply access the system by using a standard operating system and a secure browser.

"The physicians and nurses really like the system and feel that it is much easier to use and understand than some of the other solutions that we looked at," Barnett said. "You could tell that whoever designed the system had knowledge of exactly how a hospital works and exactly how nurses and physicians want to enter notes into medical charts. It's just very intuitive. Some of the other systems we looked at felt like they were designed by people who didn't know anything about medicine.  They looked like they were designed by accountants."

One of the first two Complete EHRs to receive ONC-ATCB-2011-2012 certification, ChartAccess is designed to quickly lead providers toward EHR success. Designed by clinicians for clinicians, the system makes it easy to overcome many of the commonly cited cost, usability and workflow obstacles to EHR implementation. In addition, the solution meets the mobility needs of end-users with features such as iPhone and iPad applications that make it possible to view patient rounding lists, process orders and access results at the point of care.

"We have made a concerted effort to provide the functionality that truly serves the people that use our solution. That's why all of our development efforts always have been, and always will be, keenly focused on the nurses and the physicians who are using our technology at the point of care," said Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis.

The hospital also is optimizing the value of the solution as a member of a growing RHIO. Under this innovative connectivity model, all participating hospitals dial into one centralized solution remotely, making it much easier to get systems up and running. The EHR is integrated with billing, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology and other ancillary systems at the various hospitals, which allows it to serve as a data repository for all clinical information. As a result, the solution provides a seamless continuum of care for patients, not just as they receive services in one hospital but as they receive care across the entire region.

"Because we can so easily share information, providers across the region will be fully informed at the point of care each and every time they are treating a patient. That just takes the value of an EHR solution and multiplies it exponentially," Barnett said.

The RHIO initially was established with funding from the Texas Department of Rural Affairs (TDRA).

"Implementing electronic records is a huge challenge for any hospital. We realized, however, that rural hospitals are especially hard pressed when it comes to pulling all of the resources together to successfully move to electronic records. By supporting this innovative RHIO, we are truly helping to improve care for the rural population in Texas," said Dave Darnell, Senior Program Administrator at TDRA.

About Prognosis

Prognosis Health Information Systems, Inc., Houston, aims to improve the quality and safety of patient care through ChartAccess, a certified Comprehensive EHR. Designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost, the solution enables hospitals to meet meaningful use and improve patient outcomes by leveraging built-in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) milestone and quality measure tracking functionality. PHIS uses 21st-Century technologies to offer small community hospitals a pure browser-based system that can run on-premise or in the cloud. For more information, go to www.prognosishis.com.

SOURCE Prognosis Health Information Systems, Inc.