Adena Health getting worldwide recognition
5/8/2009
By Marvin Jones
Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce
Marcus Bost’s phone is probably ringing off the hook and his email Inbox full these days following the recent worldwide recognition of Adena Health System as a leader in implementing electronic health records.
Bost, the chief information officer for Adena, was featured in an article recently in InformationWeek as an example of how to move a health organization into the digital age on a relatively modest budget. It notes that Adena is in the midst of a five-year, $16.5 million effort to get doctors, clinicians, nurses, administrators and next, patients themselves, integrated into the system.
As noted in a Chillicothe Gazette article recently, area residents in the near future will be able to book doctor’s office appointments and check their medical records through the MyAdena portal. Residents will have much more information available to better manage their health care, ultimately reducing overall costs.
Bost is quoted in the article, “For physicians, the big buy-in for them has been that it really changes their lives. Instead of seeing 40 patients here during the day and then going home to face a couple hours of paperwork, they can take a few minutes at the end of each day to write up their notes in the system, and then it’s all done, right down to taking care of the bill-drops.” All 130 physicians at Adena are trained and using the system, the article notes.
The article goes on to note the high-definition telemedicine link the hospital has with Columbus that has reduced the number of transfers of newborns with problems from 140 two years ago to 70 the next and now only about 35 a year. Each transfer costs about $10,000.
The strategic planning of the board and management at Adena and the execution of the plan by the staff is bringing positive worldwide recognition to our community and providing better health care for area residents – a great combination.
Read the entire article: Information Week on Adena
