Recent News: Saint Anne's Hospital is going digital

FALL RIVER, MA, July 8, 2009 -- In an attempt to improve the quality of care provided to its patients, Saint Anne's Hospital launched a new electronic documentation of medical records Tuesday. The hospital aims to eliminate time-consuming paperwork and risk of mistakes that come with it.

The fourth hospital in the Caritas Christi Hospital System to implement Advanced Clinical Systems, St. Anne’s has rolled out half of a two-pronged electronic conversion. Tuesday’s launch included patient care systems that allow clinicians to document assessments, problems and plans for care, and Bedside Medication Verification, where a barcoding scanner is used to match a patient to their medication at the point of care, eliminating legibility issues that come with hand-written prescriptions and dosages.

Carole Billington, vice president of patient care services for St. Anne’s, said the system integration cost the hospital $2.5 million. That cost covered the purchase of a computer system that included carts, laptops. desktops and counter mounts and barcode scanners, and paid for training more than 500 staff members. Registered nurses were trained a total of 16 hours.

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