Electronic Health Record Saves Time

My name is Paul Palermo and I am a nursing supervisor in the emergency department at Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth. I have seen many good ideas come to fruition that have changed direct patient care for the better. Over the past 4 years, I’ve had the privilege of working on the newly implemented electronic health record (aka Care Connect). This project has drawn on the talents and skills of physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators and everyone else who has any role in the delivery of health care at Texas Health Resources. The amount of coordination and work that was put into this project is difficult to put into words. However, the success of the project speaks volumes to the dedication of so many different people with so many different roles.

To see the benefits of Care Connect in the emergency department on a daily basis is truly rewarding. Access to information is almost instantaneous. Let me give you a quick example. A patient was recently admitted to the emergency department having a possible heart attack. In the past, the physician would have waited on a previous EKG to be delivered to him by one of the unit secretaries. Today, he had instant access to that EKG. This instant access gave him the ability to make the decision to send the patient to the cardiac catheterization lab for immediate intervention. This quick decision making can have a huge impact on patient outcomes and recovery as it is related to cardiovascular care.

What is truly exciting is to know how far we have come over the past seven months since we started using Care Connect. We have only begun to realize all of the potential benefits an electronic health record can bring to any hospital. After having been part of this effort and seeing the extraordinary strides we have made in such a short period of time, I can only imagine how things will continue to improve, for both patients and staff, in the future.