HealthLink:
LASTWORD® Implementation begins in hospital areas
Many hospital employees will soon experience their first hands-on involvement with the new Jefferson campus Clinical Information System known as LASTWORD® when up to 200 personal computers are installed in several hospital areas in December.
The first departments to receive new PCs will be Medical Records, Central Scheduling, Pharmacy and Nutrition and Dietetics, says Mary McNichol, Manager, HealthLINK, who is helping implement the far-reaching effort as a member of the LASTWORD® Implementation Team. Stephen Tranquillo is the Project Manager for the LASTWORD® Implementation Project.
Other departments, as well as patient care areas, will receive PCs between January and April 1998. Work-station training for employees will be provided as the devices are rolled out.
LASTWORD® will bring Jefferson a patient-centered set of applications that run on a Tandem server and PC workstations as well as improved performance and reliability and a Windows-like interface.
Implementation in Two Phases
The LASTWORD® system will be implemented at Jefferson in two phases. Phase I, explains Ms. McNichol, will replace CORE, the 10-year-old hospital information system. This initial effort includes implementing Nursing and Central Scheduling functions such as patient admission, discharge and transfer, Medical Record's patient chart abstracting, Pharmacy, the Emergency Department System and clinical results.
Phase I will be completed in June 1998. Phase II, adding new clinical applications including order entry, nursing documentation, clinical pathways and protocols, will be implemented over the next year and a half.
Background of Project
This project was started last June in response to requirements specified in the Jefferson IS Strategic Plan presented in the fall of 1994 by a team of clinical and administrative leaders with the consulting company A.D. Little.
The plan was organized around the concept of supporting the Jefferson strategy for patient care. That strategy included three key elements creation of a regional integrated healthcare system, continuous improvement and documentation for the quality care that Jefferson delivers and positioning Jefferson to assume the financial risk of reimbursement in a managed care environment
While the focus of the planning process was to achieve the automated support of patient care, the plan called for the missions of research and education to be supported as well. An information system that spans the continuum of care in support of the patient care process must also provide the tools necessary to support clinical education and research, the plan stipulated.
HealthLINK Selects Vendor
In 1995 HealthLINK was formed and charged with selecting a vendor who could provide an application system to fulfill these requirements.
Also in 1995, the Jefferson Faculty Foundation selected the IDX practice management system in order to provide a common system for patient registration and billing within the practices. This same solution has been adopted by Main Line Health's Great Valley Physician group.
In 1996, the Jefferson campus selected the PHAMIS LASTWORD® system on the strength of its clinical applications. LASTWORD® is a collection of over 20 integrated applications designed to automate the hospital and clinic workflow and to provide vital clinical, financial and administrative information to providers at all points of care. It is a patient-centered system that stores patient data, including clinical results and medications, permanently in its database.
Of note, adds Ms. McNichol, is the fact that in July PHAMIS Inc. merged with IDX System Corporation. This merger is particularly fortuitous because it will hasten integration of the two key software pieces that Jefferson had chosen to support our ambulatory and acute care environments.
As implementation draws near, more information about application training will be provided in JeffNEWS as well as on the Jefferson Web Site, http://www.tju.edu