Faced with growing frustration in its ability to support clinicians and serve patients, a regional medical center’s IT organization prescribed a push toward electronic medical records to automate, anticipate and ultimately save lives. Indeed, EMRs have provided an impetus for many healthcare organizations to investigate PPM.
New Hanover Regional Medical Center began modestly as a merger between two small hospitals in 1967 but rapidly grew into southeastern North Carolina’s largest employer and a major economic force. Today it serves seven counties, includes three health campuses and boasts nearly 900 beds.
But with such growth comes inevitable growing pains.
New Hanover’s IT organization knew it had a problem when it realized IT issues were increasingly managed by anecdote, a reactive stance that could not predict and prevent IT failures before they affected clinicians and patient care. Confidence in IT services dwindled and frustration grew.
And like many growing health care organizations, they knew the future lay in fully exploiting the capabilities of electronic medical records, a system where a patient’s health information, everything from lab results to home address, are available at a keystroke or tap of a touchscreen.
“We did an evaluation several years ago to see if we