Tuba City, Arizona – Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation (TCRHCC) is excited to move forward with the Electronic Medical Record. TCRHCC staff collectively named the entire system “MOSAIC”.
The Federal Government continues to mandate regulations on health care entities. The implementation of an Electronic Medical Record has been a mandate since 2011. TCRHCC has had a team for this implementation since 2009.
To deliver such a system is very complex, especially for the provision of Indian Health Services. TCRHCC is very unique, in that they have an inpatient hospital, as well as more than 18 medical clinics, 2 dental clinics, and inpatient pharmacy and outpatient pharmacy.
“Off the reservation, this is not the norm, they only begin with an inpatient hospital,” said Lynette Bonar, TCRHCC Associate Executive Officer. “As part of our integrated MOSAIC electronic record system, TCRHCC had selected ALERT Life Sciences, an internationally known electronic health care record system. “
The selection of this company was made with the input of our Medical Staff, Nursing Staff, and Ancillary (lab & pharmacy) back in 2009. ALERT Life Sciences has recently teamed up with Nanthealth, an American Company, to focus especially on population health and primary care needs under the Federal Mandates.
“We are very fortunate to partner with companies that are known for their innovation and ground floor originality,” said Joseph Engelken, TCRHCC CEO. “TCRHCC is following the regulated implementation from the US Government and HITECH mandates. To date, we have received 3 Million dollars to help fund this initiative.”
The US Government has mandated that all health care is electronically documented and transmitted. If health entities do not comply it will negatively impact both hospital and provider revenue, thus affecting the services it would be able to fund at healthcare facilities.
There are many articles in the health care arena on how this Electronic Medical Record mandate has impacted health Providers and Physicians, and, these have created significant changes in the delivery of health care. Physicians will need to begin entering all patient information in a computer at the patients point of care. This will increase the amount of time that a patient will be with their physician, which is a good thing in many ways, but will affect the wait times patients encounter prior to being seen.
The Federal Government says all hospitals and providers in the US have a fragmented health care system. The new mandates they are requiring of all health entities will make a more slow system, but one that is safer in the long run, for patient care and the transmittal of information among providers. This mandate will also decrease the amount of duplicate tests that happen when patients are scheduled at various providers.
TCRHCC has been able to transform an outdated Indian Health Service Information Technology system to a state of the art network that will deliver and communicate patient information among their health care providers as well as specialty providers, now and into the future.
“We are very excited that all members of the Health Care Team, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, and our Information Technology staff have engaged in this implementation process, to include our Governing Board of Directors”, said Engelken.
“The partnership between a unique healthcare systems at TCHRCC will deliver meaningful change for physicians and, most especially, for patients,” ALERT Life Sciences spokesperson said. “The benefits of the Electronic Medical Record technology will ultimately be felt and measured on a personal patient level – personalized treatment options, reduced errors, and improved medical outcomes.”
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