As the new year begins:
I do not know whether Pioneer Memorial Hospital’s First Baby of 2008 has been born yet, but I do know that this dear little one will arrive in a community of caring people, a community including not only the doctors and nurses who give immediate care to him or her, but also the broader community that extends beyond his or her family.
During December, I have been gathering items for a basket of welcoming gifts for our newest member. As in years past, I am touched by the generosity of the gifts. (Look for our ad in The Central Oregonian thanking the members of our business community who have contributed to our welcome basket.)
Along with welcome arms, our First Baby is also certain to face in his or her lifetime the constant presence of change, a phenomenon we are not immune to at PMH.
This January brings many changes to PMH, the biggest of which is our entering into a lease agreement with Cascade Healthcare Community. CHC will run PMH operations and employ our caregivers in the new year. Along with the lease agreement comes many additional changes, especially in the technology arena. Three examples are our new patient data and billing system, our server relocation to Cascade Healthcare Community and our participation in the new region-wide hospital Web site.
“The new patient data and billing program is called STAR ‘Light.’
It is a system developed by the McKesson Corporation,” said Colleen Nielsen , PMH’s chief financial officer. “What it means to our patients at first is that as they check in to the hospital as an inpatient or for outpatient services, we will ask them for their demographic information again. The system is now used in our Admitting Department, for registration in Imaging (Radiology) and Laboratory, and in billing for the Patient Accounts Department.
“Replacing our former software program will mean that our caregivers will need to re-enter patient information they may have given us before. I know this process will take a few extra minutes, at first,” Nielsen said, “Later in the year, in April, we will join the hospitals in Redmond and Bend to begin using the expanded HealthSync program, which includes the STAR system and other clinical software applications.
“So we ask for people’s patience during this time of gathering demographic information again,” Nielsen said.
In other technology news, our server was moved to Cascade Healthcare Community’s server, and over the next few years, our local computer devices will all be replaced by “thin clients,” which look like little pizza boxes, by HP desktops and IBM notebooks, according to David Allen , PMH Information Technology director. The computer programs will be housed centrally, and each client will have access to them through the thin client.
In December, all the e-mail addresses at PMH changed to cascadehealthcare.org from pmhprineville.org . There will be a period of time when a message sent to our caregivers at pmhprineville.org will automatically forward to them at cascadehealthcare.org. “Be sure to note your correspondent’s new address,” says Allen.
Another change for PMH has been our participation in the development of a region-wide Web site encompassing all four hospitals in Central Oregon: Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Prineville, Mountain View Hospital in Madras , St. Charles Redmond and St. Charles Bend.
It did not happen overnight. In fact, discussions for bringing the new Web site to Central Oregon began more than a year ago in October 2006.
“What we have developed is a truly regional web site,” said Linda Quon , who co-manages the project with Steve Janego, director of Information Technology for Cascade Healthcare Community. “You are invited to browse and visit the new site: www.cascadehealthcare.org.
“When people conduct a Web search for any of the four hospitals, they will be taken first to an ‘umbrella page.’ From there, you can select the hospital you wish to view, and each one now has a similar arrangement of information, as well as a similar look, newly designed with consumers in mind,” Quon said.
New from the PMH perspective is the presence of a health library, the arrangement of the Our Services section and the ability for people to make donations and to register for classes on-line. New photographs and video tours were added to bring a fresh look to each Web site.
The element of health care that will not change for PMH is the caring, compassionate delivery of care to our community by the professionals at Pioneer Memorial Hospital, of that I am sure.
For those of you with New Year’s resolutions to fulfill, two classes may interest you: the “FreshStart” tobacco cessation program due to begin next Tuesday, Jan. 8, and Hospice Volunteer Training later in the month. Prepared Childbirth Classes are already in session, bringing me back to the New Year Baby, and the potential of new life and new beginnings for us all.
Feel free to contact me this new year at my new e-mail address: lmthornton@cascadehealthcare.org. You each have my wishes for a happy, healthy new year.