Atlantic General Hospital

Chances are the last time you had medical treatment, either your primary care doctor, the staff at the lab or a nurse at the hospital had an electronic tablet device in their hands or a computer nearby, capturing your medical data and entering it into a database containing your personal electronic medical record.
Once considered futuristic, this process — as opposed to the old-fashioned method of noting it on a paper file in a manila folder — allows secure access to each patient’s latest clinical information and is now reality. It’s being transitioned in phases throughout Atlantic General Hospital and its network of more than 25 primary care provider and specialist offices throughout the Worcester County, Maryland and Sussex County, Delaware area.
Atlantic General Hospital has been using the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) system and Allscripts practice management systems for quite some time, and is now integrating the latest piece of the puzzle — The Sunrise Clinical Manager acute care EHR, also from Allscripts.
“We’re excited that we can integrate Sunrise with many of our existing financial and other IT systems,” commented Barbara Riddell, Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Atlantic General Hospital, “lowering costs while greatly improving the flow of clinical information between our caregivers.”
“How it’s going to help the patient, how it’s going to help their families, what it’s going to do to their experience, in the hospital, the emergency room, or the physician office, are all guiding questions we continue to address throughout the process,” stated Michael Franklin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic General Hospital.
The hospital’s “E” Strategy, which can be viewed on the AGH website at www.atlanticgeneral.org supports patients, families and caregivers and lays out a plan to utilize information technology to improve coordination of healthcare, the quality of care, and efficiency.
“Right now,” remarked Franklin, “the EMT may bring someone into the emergency room who is unconscious. In order for the attending physician to assess the situation, the EMT may have brought along all of the prescription medications that were in the patient’s medicine cabinet. Then it becomes a matter of reconciling that data with the nursing team and the physician team, which delays the onset of care at a potentially critical time.

“With the electronic environment that we have now,” added Franklin, “the physician can pull up their medical record electronically, see their history, see what medications they are on, see what their recent problems have been and administer care quickly and safely.”
With this process in place, the data from that emergency room treatment is then captured onto the record, allowing a participating primary care physician to access that information upon the patient’s next visit to his or her office.
“Creating a continuous loop between the patient's established relationship with a primary care physician in the community and the ER staff when the patient is having an acute problem – is key to the core of our mission, allowing the patient to receive better, more coordinated, more integrated healthcare,” added Franklin.
“When you talk about how this will affect you as a patient,” remarked Riddell, “there are layers of decision-support built into the software that assists the physicians by posting warning flags, alerts, etc. These recommendations are based on best practices and as a patient you want that kind of technology at work for you.”
As the electronic medical record is integrated throughout the AGH Health System physician offices and the hospital environment, it will be extended to participating independent providers in the community. There is also a focus on the team-based ‘Patient-centered Medical Home’ (PCMH) structure, which will reach even further into the community.
Under the supervision of primary care physicians, this medical home partnership between the patient, his or her primary health care provider, and a health care team will focus particularly on patients with chronic illnesses. The goals of the effort are to reduce acute crises associated with chronic illnesses, help individuals achieve optimal health status, and reduce the stress of family caregivers in the community. Together, this team works to coordinate the services that the patient needs and to provide the best health care possible.
Also playing a role in the medical home model is Atlantic General Hospital’s Faith-Based Partnership, recently initiated with 22 area churches whereby parishioners are better able to access the resources needed to help them adopt healthier lifestyles – right where they already gather. Entitled “A Vision of the Possible”, these educational sessions focus on healthy eating, exercise, weight and blood pressure checks and other important well-being issues.
“Perhaps nowhere else is there such rich potential of primary prevention than in our places of worship,” said Gail Mansell, chaplain at Atlantic General Hospital. “Messages of healthy living, whether from the pulpit or via individual ministry events, go far in reaching people that might not otherwise have access or fully avail themselves of such prevention effort. Our Faith-Based Partnership will be a new way to achieve wellness.”
Over the next 12 months, Atlantic General Hospital will be building an interactive patient portal onto their web site that will allow users to view test results, schedule appointments and even be in contact with their physicians. The Faith Based Partnership will assist in this endeavor. Through Atlantic General Hospital, its service providers, its web site and publications, and the various outreach programs, the community will be kept informed as new features become available.

Atlantic General Hospital, 9733 Healthway Drive
Berlin, Md., 1-877-641-1100, www.atlanticgeneral.org

Written By: Josh Davis