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The roll out of eMAR and Percipio - two BWH initiatives that have gained national acclaim - continues as this technology becomes available to more clinicians and sets the stage for 2006. Advances in food service and finance technologies are coming to Francis Street , and Partners and BWH IS are poised to bring the hospital's trend-setting technology to more care providers outside the Brigham.
The biggest and most significant IS project underway this year, however, will have no direct effect on the end user, Sue Schade, BWH chief information officer, said. “The move of our data center is a major undertaking which is already underway,” Schade said.
BWH's data center, now housed within 5,400 square feet of space in the Service Center building, is moving to a new, secure facility in Needham, an endeavor that will take 13 separate weekend move events. “There are more than 500 pieces of equipment,” said Frank Bramante, PHS IS project manager for data centers. This massive move began in December and continues through March, with events scheduled for weekend off-hours to ensure minimal interruption.
eMAR, BWH's award-winning electronic medication administration record, is now in all inpatient areas in the hospital, except the NICU and Oncology. That changes this year, as eMAR is set to go live and link chemotherapy drugs to bar codes in Oncology in August. Planning will then begin to bring eMAR to the Emergency Department. Also, the Blood Bank system will be replaced with a vendor system this summer.
The communication of inpatient orders to the clinical labs is set to go electronic this year. Under the current system, nurses and unit coordinators manage paper lab orders, but CPOE will be linked with the lab this year. In addition, blood specimens bound for labs will be bar coded under a pilot program to be rolled out later this year.
ED order entry and BICS order entry used in the Tower will be interfaced this summer, creating safer and more efficient patient flow. A new bed management system will be implemented this year, as well. “This will make a significant difference in patient flow and bed capacity management,” Schade said.
BWH and PHS IS have several more projects in the pipeline, including plans to track equipment through radio frequencies (RFID) following a successful pilot program. IS will complete the rollout of LMR to specialists while beginning implementation for private staff, and will complete the Partners-wide project known as COMPASS, a common patient administration system. Also, the IS team is involved with technology strategies to support the hospital’s relationships with external care providers as well as a joint BWH and MGH effort to automate acute care documentation.