Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS)

INHS has implemented a common hospital information system across 34 mostly independent hospitals in Washington and Idaho. This unique network has resulted in a regional data repository, with standardized data and a common Master Patient Index, which allows health care providers to access needed patient data from any hospital in the region.

Situation

Physicians frequently lack adequate information at the point-of-care, including patient history, test results, and other critical health data, to support high quality diagnoses and treatment. Paper-based patient records and stand-alone hospital information systems are a major cause of this problem because they are isolated in individual facilities and cannot readily be shared between health care providers. In addition to hampering patient care, such systems are expensive to maintain, contributing to the high costs of health care.

Solution

Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS), a 501(c)(3) in Spokane, Washington, has developed an integrated approach for addressing both isolated hospital information systems and paper-based records in physician offices. INHS has implemented a common hospital information system across 34 mostly independent hospitals in Washington and Idaho. This unique network has resulted in a regional data repository, with standardized data and a common Master Patient Index, which allows health care providers to access needed patient data from any hospital in the region. Providers can either view the data via a secure web portal, download it wirelessly to a personal digital assistant, or have the data transferred as a standard electronic message to their clinic’s electronic medical record system. INHS not only makes data available when and where it is needed, the standardized approach to hospital information systems saves money.

Magic Valley Regional Medical Center (MVRMC) in South Central Idaho saw an opportunity in the INHS approach not only to improve the operations of their facility, but also to provide a new service to physicians. MVRMC first implemented the standardized hospital information system in their 213-bed facility, enabling them to lower their information management costs and to share data across the region. MVRMC then obtained a grant to plan and implement a physician office electronic medical record system (EMR), and worked with INHS to develop a centralized model for the system. By using a centralized approach, MVRMC is able to help physicians implement and maintain EMR systems at a lower cost than individual physicians would pay on their own. Further, the centralized approach assures that MVRMC can readily develop interfaces between the hospital system and the EMR system, allowing bi-directional electronic transfer of data between the two systems. The result will be a comprehensive electronic health record for all members of this Idaho community, with health care providers able to access ambulatory care, emergency room, and inpatient data, when and where they need it.

Better Health & Lower Costs

• MVRC anticipated savings of more than $1 million in implementation costs by using INHS Meditech system
• Each participating physician office estimated to recover return on investment in EMR within2 to 3 years.