Put your
health info on
the record
Good medical care o en hinges on an-
swering the right questions. When was
your last tetanus shot? Have you ever had
surgery? Do you take medications—and
if so, what kind and how much?
Trying to remember all the details
about your procedures, tests, medications
and other important health information
can be di cult. But something called a
personal health record (PHR) can help.
is tool—o en kept electronically and
online—helps you compile, organize and
store key details about your health.
at’s important, especially if you see
more than one doctor. Even if all your
doctors are part of the same health care
system, they may each keep a separate
medical record on you—whichmeans they
may not be aware of the treatments you’re
getting from another provider.
A PHR puts all that information to-
gether so it’s easy for you to share with
whomever you choose, including doctors,
family members and caregivers.
A PHR can also help you:
Gauge progress toward your health-
related goals.
Assess howwell a treatment is working.
Avoid duplicating tests or proce-
dures—which can save you money.
Building your PHR
A PHR should have
contact information—for you, your
health care providers and the people
who need to be reached if you have an
emergency. You also may want to include
things such as:
A list of the prescription and non-
prescription medications—including
vitamins and herbs—that you take, along
with the dosage.
A list—with dates—of your vaccinations,
important illnesses, tests and surgeries.
A list of any allergies you have.
Your family history of illnesses or he-
reditary conditions.
Your health insurance information.
Your living will and organ donor
card.
Getting started
First, decide how you
want to set up and maintain your PHR.
You may opt to put paper copies of your
medical information in a le folder or
scan and put documents in a le on your
computer. Or you may choose to sub-
scribe to an online service.
An online PHR—protected by a secure
password—can give you instant access,
even if you’re away from home.
To learn more about PHRs, go to
.
Source: American Health Information Management Association
For the h year in a row, Samaritan
Healthcare has been awarded the Most
Wired award, according to the results of
the
HealthCare’s Most Wired Survey
released in the July issue of
Hospitals &
Health Networks
magazine.
“It is such an honor to receive this pres-
tigious award for a h year in a row. is
award recognizes our organization for being
proactive in adopting evidence-based IT
practices. We will continue to work to
strengthen the function of our systems in
support of quality patient care,” says Tom
ompson, president andCEO
of Samaritan Healthcare.
The HealthCare’s Most
Wired Survey is conducted
annually and focuses on how
the nation’s hospitals use
information technologies for
quality, customer service, pub-
lic health and safety, business
processes, and workforce issues. is year
marks the th anniversary of HealthCare’s
Most Wired Survey. In that time, hospitals
and health care systems have made great
strides in establishing the basic building
blocks for creating robust clinical information
systems aimed at improving patient care.
Hospitals&HealthNetworks
’ HealthCare’s
Most Wired Survey was conducted Jan. ,
, through March ,
. Respondents
completed
surveys, representing ,
hospitals—roughly percent of the hos-
pitals in the United States.
Hospitals are judged on four focus
areas. If any of these requirements are
not met, then the organization does not
achieve the Most Wired designation.
e four focus areas are:
Infrastructure.
Business and administrativemanagement.
Clinical quality and safety (inpatient/
outpatient hospital).
Clinical integration (ambulatory/
physician/patient/community).
“ is year’s Most Wired organizations
exemplify progress through innovation,”
says Rich Umbdenstocki,
president and CEO of the
American Hospital Associa-
tion. “ e hospital eld can
learn from these outstanding
organizations ways that in-
formation technology can
help to improve e ciency.”
“ is award is an accu-
mulation of hard work and dedication by
numerous individuals,” says Tom Legel,
chief nancial o cer/chief operating of-
cer. “Our IT sta , providers, administra-
tion, employees and our board of
commissioners have worked long hours to
improve the care we provide the members
of our community. You will continue to
see growth in the electronic medical re-
cords at Samaritan. We are committed to
improving our quality of service, safety
and e ectiveness of care we provide to our
community.”
Samaritan is Most Wired
Samaritan Healthcare is
among the less than per-
cent of U.S. hospitals that
have achieved a Stage
status for the use of elec-
tronic medical records
(EMRs). For a small rural
hospital, reaching Stage
in Health Information
Management Systems So-
ciety (HIMSS) is an im-
pressive accomplishment.
“Receiving this Stage
designation is a true vali-
dation of the e orts that
Samaritan Healthcare
has taken to improve the
quality and safety of care
that we provide the com-
munity,” says Tom Legel,
chief financial officer/
chief operating o cer at
Samaritan.
HIMSS Analytic is an
organization that assists
hospital leaders with judg-
ing the effectiveness of
their EMR. HIMSS worked
with the American Hospital
Association to create the
HIMSS Analytics EMR
Adoption Model, which
identifies and scores a
health care provider’s EMR
capabilities in a set range
beginning at Stage and
ending at Stage , where
the health care system is
completely paperless.
The requirements to
achieve Stage include
three main components:
Utilization of comput-
erized provider order entry
(CPOE).
Closed-loop medication
administration.
Physician documenta-
tion where clinical deci-
sion support rules assist
the physician in making
evidence-based decisions
for a patient’s care.
Stage hospitals have
achieved a signi cant ad-
vancement in their infor-
mation technology (IT)
capabilities that positions
them to successfully ad-
dress many of the current
industry transformations,
such as meaningful use cri-
teria in the American Re-
covery and Reinvestment
Act, claims attachments
for HIPAA, pay for per-
formance, and govern-
ment quality reporting
programs.
“Samaritan is well on its
way to reaching Stage ,”
says Brandy Young, RN,
BSN, clinical informatics
specialist at Samaritan.
“We only have a few things
left to do and we will
achieve a Stage . We are
almost there.”
“HIMS S Ana l y t i c s
congratulates Samaritan
Healthcare for leading
the way toward health IT
adoption,” says John Hoyt,
FACHE, FHIMSS, executive
vice president, organiza-
tional services for HIMSS.
“Stage represents a level
of sophistication that only
U.S. hospitals have
reached to date.”
LEADING THE WAY: From left, Eric Bending, director of information technology; Brandy
Young, RN, BSN, clinical informatics specialist; Tom Legel, chief financial officer/
chief operating officer; and Rebecca Johnson, clinical informatics specialist
Samaritan Healthcare receives Stage recognition
Information technology is quietly transforming health care for the better
N E W S , V I E W S & T I P S
S A M A R I T A N H E A L T H
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3
t h
T H E S A M A R I T A N
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