Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

SPOTLIGHT: 2010 Most Wired

Rarely does an orthopedic physician discuss information workflow with an ER doc, but at Regions Hospital, St. Paul, Minn., they strive to get different physicians talking to one another. ?There are not a lot of other places where these physicians can discuss information flow,? says Brad Gordon, MD, medical director of informatics. ?We work hard to get physicians who normally wouldn?t see each other together.? The Physician Advisory Group for Medical Informatics meets monthly to advise and react to issues and challenges around integration Regions? electronic health record. This model has not only improved physician engagement around information technology, it has become a reality check for others trying to make changes to the system. Getting input from this group also improves compliance rates since physicians better understand some of the challenges to IT implementation from a technical or privacy angle. Additionally, details added by this group can go a long way to improving usability, says Gordon. Regions Hospital is a 2010 Most Wired winner.