Western Baptist Hospital and one of the area’s largest physician groups have partnered to share electronic medical information on their patients to save time and money, while benefiting their patients.

“This is a partnership that ultimately benefits our patients,” said Shane Carter, CEO of Jackson Purchase Medical Associates. “Anytime you can put more of the patients’ medical information directly into the providers’ hands, the patient will see more efficient care.”

The physician group includes 17 internal medicine, nephrology, endocrinology and family medicine specialists.

The new partnership allows the doctors to access hospital clinical information on their patients in real time. For example, as soon as a lab result is ready, it shows up on the doctor’s computer – whether at home, in the office or on a portable device. The result comes in immediately instead of the next morning as a faxed paper report.

In the first few days of the partnership, the hospital averaged 362 reported results to JPMA every day.

Stephen McCullough, D.O., nephrologist , said the system has eliminated a significant amount of paperwork between the doctors and Western Baptist. “It has really improved the turnaround times for lab decisions,” he said. “I can make much quicker decisions on lab work for hospitalized patients since I receive the information electronically.”

For a patient, that means the doctor can proceed with treatment as much as 24 hours earlier than may have been possible with paper reports.

It also saves money in supplies and labor, estimated to save the physicians’ group $33,500 a year by reducing the amount of paper to be scanned and processed.

James Long, M.D., JPMA president, said the partnership is an important step in the future of healthcare. “Along with our iHealth platform allowing JPMA patients to connect to us,” he said, “this electronic connection is a very important step forward for all of us. We are beginning to see the future of medical care in the U.S.”

Mike Cromika, director of the hospital’s Information Services, said the integration was achieved with a product from the Relay Health division of the hospital’s information systems partner, McKesson. 

“Because there are few such partnerships in Kentucky or even the U.S. yet, and this concept is brand new in many ways, we want to be sure that our checks and balances all work as designed,” he said. “Then at some point in the future when technology capabilities expand, the shared information service will be made available to other

physicians with electronic medical records systems.”

Cromika noted that electronic data currently is available to other physicians through hospital software, but the integration with JPMA’s software allows for a more timely transfer of data.

Benefits to the hospital include:

• More efficiency in reduced paperwork and claims processing.
• Faster clinical decisions.
• Possible decrease in a patient’s length of hospital stay due to more aggressive clinical management.
• More efficient communication with physicians and an improved physician-friendly environment.

“Results can be trended over time to give the physician a more complete view into the patient’s medical history,” he said, “so ultimately the patient is the winner.”