Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital will launch an electronic health record, thanks to a $334,268 grant from a state charitable fund.
The $50 million fund was established by state regulators in 2005 when PacifiCare Health Systems merged with UnitedHealth Group.
Five years ago, the small, 124-bed acute-care and skilled nursing facility located in Grass Valley, Calif., implemented an internal EHR system. With the help of Congressional leaders, including Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), the hospital and foundation received a federal appropriations grant that covered the start-up costs, according to Mark Freitas, director of business and information systems for the hospital.
The EHR system derived huge cost savings in operational efficiencies, and the hospital wanted to extend the efficiencies outside the walls of the hospital and into the physicians' offices, he said.
Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital's primary service area covers 75,000 of the 98,000 residents in Nevada County, said Sandra Auerbach, development director of the foundation. Most of those residents are retirees, in a foothills region that is facing a tough economy, said Freitas. With 55 percent of residents on Medicare, low reimbursement creates an additional financial hardship on local physicians.
The community-wide EHR system will benefit physicians by enabling them to leverage the hospital's IT infrastructure and its disaster recovery site. It will save at least $25,000 each in startup costs and licensing and hardware maintenance and upgrades, Freitas said, a significant savings from the industry standard of between $40,000 to $60,000 per physician office to implement an EHR system.
With funding secured, process redesign will be a major focus, said Freitas. The physicians are in mostly one- to two-physician practices that are entrenched in paper processes, he said, and the average age of the local physician is over 50. A project manager has been brought in to facilitate the transition for physicians. Consultants will also be brought in to help with the standardization of the EHR and practice management systems and the conversion of the accounts receivable component. The hospital is also working with Bank of America to address financial issues. "We're taking the necessary steps to minimize the impact of physician conversion," Freitas said.
The Hospital has buy-in from the local physicians and the Sierra Nevada IPA, the contracting arm of the physicians. "We've received positive support," he said. "This is great affirmation of the project." Six physicians are part of the steering committee that is overseeing the project.
The Hospital is in the midst of Phase II, which includes getting the hardware and interface infrastructure in place to enable the community connection, said Auerbach. Once an EHR vendor is selected and the infrastructure up and running, which Freitas anticipates will be by the beginning of September, Phase III will begin with five physician offices becoming connected, followed by a gradual rollout for the remaining 30 physician offices.
The Hospital is soliciting community feedback and focusing on ensuring the privacy and security of patient electronic records and the ability of patients to opt-in, said Freitas.
"The bottom line is that this single system works and we want to bring that model to the community," he said. "We recognize the value of this project to our physicians and our community. It's got the markings of success; we just need to pull this off."