STAYING CONNECTED
Michael R. Ripchinski, MD, Physician Informatics Liaison, Lancaster General Hospital
I’m pleased to provide you with an Information Services update. Many of you have asked me about wireless and home access so I have included a brief review on these topics. I will also tell you about the Atlas Project (Epic Systems Electronic Medical Record for private practices) and the Inpatient and Outpatient Electronic Medical Record Project. Although you may have heard of these projects, you are likely less familiar with PC Helps.
Open Wireless within the Hospitals
In the early summer, Information Services implemented a wireless network for physicians within Lancaster General Hospital and Women and Babies Hospital. Many of you with wireless devices may have noticed this network labeled as “LGDoctor.” This network is open and does not require a secure key to access it. You can use this network to access the Internet or your office as you would from home.
To access it, browse for the network called “LGDoctor” and click your “Connect” button. You will either see your network icon turn green, or receive a popup message stating that your device is connected to the LGDoctor network. Open up your Internet browser, and browse to an address like www.google.com. Click “yes” to accept the certificate which pops-up. At the login page, type in LGDoctor (case sensitive) for the user name and LGDoctor (case sensitive) for the password and click Logon. You will remain logged in for 9 hours. After 9 hours, you will have to log in through your Internet browser again. If you need more information, please contact me.
Remote Access from your Office or Home
In my role, many members of the medical staff have asked me how to access our clinical resources from home. You can access our network from home via the Lancaster General Virtual Private Network (VPN). Also, if you use your wireless laptop on the LGDoctor network, you will have to login through the LG VPN to access our resources. Use your network/email username and password to login to
https://access.lancastergeneral.org. You will see a menu of options including the Intranet, SMS, Ibex, Lexi-Comp, EBSCOhost, MDConsult, and PubMed.
Atlas Accelerated
Project Atlas is our name for the implementation of the Practice Management and Electronic Medical Record applications from Epic Systems across the Lancaster General and Lancaster General Medical Group private practices. We went live with all of the applications at Walter Aument Family Health Center in February 2007 and at Strasburg Family Health Center and Lincoln Family Medicine in May 2007. For 5 months leading up to September 1st, our project team worked closely with our practice managers and staff to accelerate the implementation of the scheduling, registration and billing modules at all of the remaining LG and LGMG sites. This represents an amazing accomplishment and I applaud all of the teams and practices for their success. We hope to finalize the rollout of the EMR at the other sites in the next few months. Lancaster General is also defining a plan to offer Epic to our affiliated physicians. We will let you know the details in the coming months.
Inpatient and Outpatient Electronic Medical Record
Lancaster General is committed to conducting a fair, open, honest, and objective process whereby its physicians, key partners, employees and administration select a new system which will support enhanced processes in the inpatient, outpatient, surgical and emergency areas. The existing clinical system is neither suitable for physician order entry nor adequate for documentation. The current system cannot be enhanced to include necessary interactive decision support logic. The future system will enable safe, efficient, appropriate and accountable care leading to improved patient outcomes, exceptional patient experiences and outstanding patient healthcare. Several committees have been formed to select the Inpatient and Outpatient Electronic Medical Record system which will replace SMS/Netaccess, Cerner pharmacy and Sovera. The project, which will lead to the integration of older systems, will take place over the next 5-7 years and represents a multi-million dollar investment.
Physicians will not only have input into the selection, but also the system’s design and implementation. The Project’s Certification Committee, composed of 35 members from the medical and dental staff and Lancaster General administration, will ensure that the selected system and vendor will embrace best practices and our future workflows with respect to clinical and administrative functions. We hope to have a system selected by the first quarter of 2008.
Help is a Phone Call Away
Lancaster General has contracted with PC Helps, a company which supports and educates both novice and advanced users of desktop PC software applications via fast, expert telephone support. If you need help with Windows, Outlook, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you can call 544-5001, Option 5. This support is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
For any questions, please contact me at miripchi@LancasterGeneral.org, 544-5817 (IS Office), 786-7385 (Walter Aument Family Health Center) or via pager 305-1925.
LEXI-COMP DRUG IDENTIFICATION
Did you know that Lexi-Comp can help you to identify a medication? Click on Lexi-Comp Online from the Physicians Page on the Intranet. Click on Drug ID highlighted in blue as below on the left-hand side menu. You can find a medication by imprint, dosage form, shape and/or colors. Click on the Search button and product information will be displayed on the right with links to available images for confirmation.