Community Memorial Hospital and Ojai Valley Community Hospital Go High-Tech to Improve Patient Care

Ventura, California, 10/17/2005

Community Memorial Hospital and Ojai Valley Community Hospital have embraced several of the newest communication technologies in healthcare to give doctors, nurses and other caregivers instant access to patient information in real time.

The changes come as both hospitals seek new ways to improve efficiency and patient care, and move toward a more responsive, paperless environment.

“Providing the best in patient care is the cornerstone of what we do,” says Gary Wilde, President & CEO of Community Memorial Hospital. “By giving our physicians and healthcare teams the capability to access patient information quickly, we support their ability to accomplish this goal”.

Nick Pappas, Director of Information Systems for both hospitals, states, “the idea is to get the information into the doctors’ hands as quickly as possible”.

State-of-the-art communications technology has come to CMH and OVCH in four key ways:

1. Staff physicians at both hospitals have access to new software for their mobile communications devices, such as smart cell phones and pocket PDAs that place vital patient information at their fingertips –literally- in seconds. The software is called MData Mobile. It is manufactured by MercuryMD, a North Carolina-based healthcare software company that develops medical technology to improve efficiency. Doctors with the software on their mobile PC devices can readily access lab results, medication lists, radiology results, new patient data and otherinformation from their devices at the Ventura and Ojai hospitals. Doctors say that hastening the delivery of this information helps them give better and faster care and promotes patient safety.
   
   
2. CMH and OVCH have added remote access for patient information. Doctors can access patient information from their homes or offices using the MData software and the Internet. This software is called MData Desktop, and it lets doctors obtain all the information stored in MData from a secure Web site at any location using the Internet. In addition, doctors have access to a secure, virtual private network that allows them to access information from the hospital’s systems.
   
   
3. CMH has installed wireless networks in patient care areas for nurses to use mobile devices to access the most updated patient information at the bedside. CMH nurses have new, mobile nursing carts with computers attached to document care as it is given and to document patient information like vital signs. This means many nurses no longer have to leave a patient’s side and return to the nursing station to use a computer. The technology allows nurses to stay with patients longer.
   
   
4. CMH has brought in new digital radiology technology so doctors can have immediate, remote access to test results from ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs using the Internet. Results can be viewed on-line from any location, as the images from the tests are captured and stored on a computer rather than film. This means doctors no longer have to wait for film to be developed or written reports to be sent to their offices from a lab. This new technology is called the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).

BACK TO TOP