Emergency Department to make transition to EMR
By Michele Rainford
UTMB’s Emergency Department is a hub of activity for the institution with some 25 percent of the patients seen in the ER admitted to the hospital. As such, the department’s transition to the Epic Electronic Medical Records system is a remarkable undertaking.
Beginning Nov. 28, the Emergency Room/Emergency Department will shut down emSTAT, the current documentation system, and start using ASAP, the Epic EMR component for emergency rooms. The old system will be retained for historical reporting purposes only.
According to Director of Clinical Information Stephen Hollaway, shutting down emSTAT and going to the Epic system will save approximately 80 percent of the current software maintenance fees.
Training of the department’s clinicians will conclude just in time to begin documenting in the system on Nov. 28.
The new ASAP system features a color-coded nursing documentation greaseboard or track board for patient updates, similar to the ones now in use outside the regular operating rooms. Color-coded, mapped emergency rooms coordinate with the electronic track boards in the department.
The new Epic system ensures that initial documentation of patients by the ER nurses will be readily available to other ER clinicians. In conjunction with the switch to EMR, the Emergency Department is introducing processes to enhance the flow of health care to patients as they go through each step of care at UTMB.
Doctors will continue to document on paper for now while evaluating the new functionality that will come with the spring system upgrade. This upgrade will provide new tools and advancements, including department-specific forms that will be very beneficial to the doctors as they continue to incorporate the EMR into their practice.
At low volume the Emergency Department has about 30 beds open, but during high volume periods, the ER can accommodate more than 64 patients. Approximately 21 percent of the ER patients are pediatrics patients, while about 10 percent of its adult patients are older than 64.
The ED is the latest UTMB area to implement the Epic Electronic Medical Records system as part of a multi-phased effort to transition to electronic patient records from paper patient records.