The beauty of living the rural life is the joy of feeling connected. A new technology program is connecting the departments at Wise Regional Health System (WRHS) in Decatur, TX that once operated independently.

"Our departments were used to operating independently, however, our growth requires all of us to work together," said Jennifer Graham, LVN, WRHS director of clinical and ancillary applications. "Once the various departments started using the new system, they started experiencing the benefits."

Smiling for Patient Safety
Decatur in Wise County is 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth, TX, and home to Wise Regional, which has experienced million dollar expansions in recent years, and now has a total of 148 acute care beds in two facilities. Wise County has also seen phenomenal growth just in the last 5 years along side community pride which is reflected on the smiles of the locals.

And the nurses and physicians at WRHS are all smiles today thanks to the implementation of a new, hospitalwide technology program. Teaming together in 2008, Graham and director of med/surg Laurie Edelman, RN, began integrating a Web-based health information system that serves as an electronic health record and a computerized physician order entry program. The new system makes current patient data easily accessible and information between departments transparent.

"The greatest benefit, however, is how it affects patient safety," Graham said. "From beginning to end, every nurse can get a quick and complete picture of the patient. Technology can and does strengthen patient safety which makes our job more efficient. From preventing medication errors and ensuring documentation accuracy to saving nurse time, the electronic information assists the hospital in meeting our patient safety initiatives."

Growing & Working Together
Growing along side the new technology is another benefit. "We can adapt the computer program to the advancements in the nursing field so we're growing together," Edelman said.

Joining Wise in 1999 as a staff nurse in med/surg, Edelman knows change can be a good thing even when it means learning a new computer system.

"It's nice to see the hospital grow," she said. "For our rural patient population, it's important they can get this level of service and not have to drive an hour to the Metroplex. We still maintain that 'down home' friendly community environment and yet the patients continue to receive a higher level of care and service."

Benefits Just a Click Away
Edelman and Graham continue to provide one-on-one training for the hospital's physicians and radiologists, and will eventually train the entire health system. Working together as a team in a "train-the-trainer" approach to employee training, Edelman and Graham trained more than 400 nurses in groups of 10 during a 3-week period in 2008.

When introducing new technology, Graham works closely with Edelman to test new software. According to Edelman, her unit serves as a pilot unit to assure the software will integrate seamlessly and will not impede nursing workflow.

"We identified the 'super users' - 12 charge nurses - and trained them on the new system," Edelman explained.

She said the use of technology, such as the electronic charting, has been a tremendous time-saver.

 "With the extra time saved, nurses are able to sit by the bedside and offer some patient education or spend more one-on-one time with the patients," she shared.

According to Graham, each nurse currently has her own laptop with a mobile cart that has the medications and supplies in the cart.

"The hospital plans to have a computer in every patient room by early spring," she added.  

"Another benefit is accuracy of documentation, which helps us achieve our core measures," Edelman said.

"With paper charting, sometimes we might forget to chart," she said. "We can build a reminder in the electronic charting software program. This built in feature helps us along and it's just a click away."

Learning a Part of Growth
As most nurses know, learning is a 24/7 requirement of the nursing profession. Wise is also a teaching hospital where nursing students are learning the new computer system during their clinical rotations.

"It's really nice that the students are already trained and exposed to the computer system," Edelman said. "By the time they decide to stay on with Wise, they are already familiar with the floor and have a greater sense of security with their new position."

The new technology system also enhances the training of the students by notifying users prior to an error occurring.  

"A big red X will appear on the screen after the barcode is scanned to indicate a 'medication error hard stop' is necessary," Edelman said. "And that's a huge benefit to the learning process."

According to Edelman, Wise has 10-15 nursing students with each rotation; approximately eight turned in an application for employment to work at Wise after graduation.

Whether learning a new program as an experienced nurse or learning the profession as a nursing student, Wise is making connections.

Amy McGuire is regional editor at ADVANCE.