New prompter system will alert physicians

A new prompting addition to the computers at Whitman Hospital and Medical Center will instantly alert a physician at their desk about potential problems of patients in the hospital. For example, a doctor could be alerted when the potassium level declines on a patient being treated for pneumonia.

The new prompting system, which also allows doctors to document their orders for a patient, will be used hospital-wide starting Nov. 2.

The program will be used by the 15 physicians working for the hospital. Three doctors are currently using the program, called Computerized Provider Order Entry.

Chief Clinical Officer Denise Fowler said the program should solve the age-old problem of hospital staff members being unable to read written instructions left by a doctor.

“Transcribing from written notes creates errors,” Fowler said.

This way, doctors can both be alerted of new problems on a patient and write down, legibly, orders for that patient.

“They’ll be able to spend more time with patients rather than at the computer,” Fowler said.

The new prompting system is one more step in the hospital’s ongoing effort to tighten up their approach to electronic medical records.

Last winter, the hospital began using a barcode verification system that enabled staff to use barcode scanners to check out medication to patients.

The overall physician software used by the hospital, the Physician Care Management Suite, cost $170,000. Chief Financial Officer Jim Heilsburg estimated the prompter aspect of the program was about one fourth the cost of the software.