Sarah Richardson, Chief Information Officer
The Kansas City Business Journal recently awarded HCA Midwest Health System with an ImpacT Award, recognizing Kansas City’s largest healthcare provider for its exemplary use of technology that impacts the patient experience. This year, five outside judges chose 13 ImpacT Award winners, including HCA Midwest Health System, which was named for Efficiency. This is the second time in three years that HCA Midwest Health System has won the distinction, including a 2011 award for Client Interface that recognized Emergency Department billboards.
Leaders from MidAmerica IT&S (Information & Technology Services)—a division of HCA Midwest Health System—accepted this year’s ImpacT award during a luncheon at the Sheraton Overland Park.
HCA Midwest Health System consists of 10 hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics, physician practices, surgery centers and an array of other services to meet the healthcare needs of the greater Kansas City area. HCA Midwest employs more than 9,000 individuals, including 193 IT&S employees.
IT&S efforts reflect the need to address constant medical regulatory and compliance issues, using technology designed to improve the patient experience, including creation and maintenance of patient records. HCA Midwest Health System facilitated the purchase of voice recognition software for many of its clinics, assisted in its installation, trained physicians one-on-one, and monitored the success. The process has been in place at some clinics for almost a year.
“This voice recognition solution significantly reduces the amount of time physicians spend in front of a computer and allows them to spend more time with patients,” says Sarah Richardson, Chief Information Officer, HCA Midwest Health System. “Physician notes at practices that embrace voice recognition are available in near real time and exceed ACA (Affordable Care Act) requirements of patient data availability by 30-plus hours. Also, since any data is stored as text, it satisfies the ACA mandate to be text searchable.”
“We are thrilled that these hardworking teams have received public recognition for their efforts to streamline clinic operations through use of voice recognition software,” says M.L. Lagarde, President, HCA Midwest Health System. “Their work exemplifies HCA’s commitment to provide our physicians and patients with a state-of-the-art medical care delivery system.”
“More than the cost savings, the real value is in the time saved,” says Susan Woods, Manager of Transcription Operations, one of the teams that implemented the solution. “While handwritten documents scanned into computers are ACA compliant, they are not efficient. Our physicians have welcomed this change.”
For more information about HCA Midwest Health System, visit hcamidwest.com.