EAST ORANGE, N.J. – July 7, 2011 – In keeping with President Barack Obama’s vision of improved healthcare delivery nationwide, the 211-bed East Orange General Hospital (EOGH) has launched an innovative electronic medical records system that will support enhancements in efficiency while ensuring accuracy and patient safety. On June 28th, East Orange General Hospital went “live” with an industry leading computerized system that will reduce the need for traditional paper records.
“We have an unwavering commitment to serve the diverse healthcare needs of our community,” said East Orange General Hospital President and CEO Kevin Slavin. “For a community hospital like ours, having a robust, and integrated electronic medical records system will help us to better manage quality improvement in a tough financial climate by better coordinating patient care records.”
East Orange General Hospital is East Orange’s largest private employer and Essex County’s only independent, fully accredited, acute-care hospital. Serving the community for over a century, East Orange General Hospital recently expanded its services and is continually adding new equipment and programs to provide the highest level of quality and compassionate patient care. Specialty areas include: Same Day Surgery, Physical Rehabilitation Services, Behavioral Health, Family Health, Emergency Medicine, Outpatient Hemodialysis, Hyperbaric/Wound Management, Vascular and Medical/Surgical Services.
Through the implementation of its highly robust computerized system, EOGH has now positioned itself to receive additional Medicare and Medicaid incentive payment for adoption and “meaningful use” of federally certified electronic health records (EHR).
Based on its expectation that it will demonstrate “meaningful use” of this new system, the hospital expects to receive approximately $2.5 million from Medicaid and approximately $1 million from Medicare. These EHR incentive payments will enable East Orange General Hospital to continue its mission of serving the community while being a pioneer in bringing digital health records to the region.
East Orange General Hospital will now be able to further improve patient safety by reducing manual entry of all medications and other important patient data. Providing information at the fingertips of doctors and nurses will reduce time spent searching for data and help increase efficiency. |
