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December 13, 2004
EHIT to install host e-prescription system for Bronx hospital
Westchester County Business Journal
EHIT to install host e-prescription system for Bronx hospital
By BOB ROZYCKI
Yonkers-based Emerging Health Information Technology has been chosen by Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center to implement its electronic prescription management system for 10 outpatient sites.
Wolf
"The system is a key factor in improving patient safety," said Jack Wolf, president and chief executive officer of EHIT. "It allows physicians to instantly retrieve a patient's medication profile, input new prescriptions and efficiently manage renewals."
Moreover, the software was designed to "eliminate illegible handwritten prescriptions and to check for drug allergies, duplicate orders, maximum dosages and medication conflicts."
EHIT, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, provides health-care information management services for hospitals, integrated delivery networks and medical centers. It was formed as a sole-member limited liability company in 2001 and moved to Yonkers earlier this year.
In addition to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, EHIT handles medical data for Montefiore, Montefiore CMO (contract management organization) and St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, Conn.
More than half of the adverse medical events occurring each year in the United States are due to preventable medication errors, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
"Our implementation of this same technology at Montefiore Medical Center combined with computerized physician order entry (CPOE) reduced medication errors by 70 percent," Wolf said. At Montefiore, doctors use rolling wireless laptops to access patient data, record treatment, and prescribe medication. "Drug interaction is available immediately - in real time," Wolf said, which helps avoid mistakes. "There is no transcription error."
Montefiore and Bronx-Lebanon are the only two hospitals in the state that mandate physicians to put in prescriptions via the data management system, he said.
EHIT changed Montefiore over the past five years from a paper-based system to a wireless network that includes three hospitals and 25 patient centers.
EHIT hosts a number of Bronx-Lebanon's information systems, including patient accounting and financial systems, patient registration, laboratory, results reporting, discharge summaries, and materials management. "Emerging Health has eliminated many of the barriers that stood between our organization and the ability to deploy technology," said Steven Anderman, chief information and operating officer for Bronx-Lebanon. "The outsourced model they've created provides us with the opportunity to leverage their technology and experience to utilize information in a way that can literally save lives."
Although he could not comment on the e-prescription contract with Bronx-Lebanon, Wolf said that a "full-blown" all components included medical management system for a 500-bed hospital would be in the $6 million to $10 million range.
EHIT's data center and administrative facility is a 24-hour operation; Wolf said it has to be because human lives are involved. The firm has a total 300 employees. The data center is made up of 15,000 square feet of raised-floor, clean-room space that includes a mainframe, servers, remote monitoring and other capabilities, Wolf said
The electronic prescribing software was developed by IDX, a Vermont-based health-care technology provider. After installing the system for Bronx-Lebanon, EHIT will provide support for the application, including network management and help desk services.
For more information on its services, visit www.emerginghealthit.com.
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