Hospitals continue to work towards electronic records

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Both of Southeast Missouri's largest hospitals are working to complete their conversions to electronic medical record.

St. Francis Medical Center's $11.8 million conversion is expected to enter the final phase by 2012. Despite government incentives, the center expects to lose approximately $4.6 million.

Diane Smith, director of Information Systems, says St. Francis is initiating a program called Healthy Connect to safeguard privacy. It provides an information exchange between healthcare providers. It also allows for private communication. Healthy Connect is powered by a central server, unlike public email.

"It adds another layer of protection and security that patients will receive some comfort in so far as thinking that their records will be public and out on the Internet," Smith said.

Patients won’t have to list off their medical history each visit. Instead it will be available to other healthcare providers through the system.

Southeast HEALTH has been making the switch for several years as well.

The estimated cost for the entire project is around $15 million. While several physician’s offices have already gone electronic, the hospital expects to be completely electronic by mid-2013.

Southeast Health is addressing concerns by providing safety measures for patients, according to Jay McGuire, director of Information Systems at Southeast HEALTH.

“We’ve instituted a very robust auditing system so we can find out who accessed a record, date and time they did, so we can backtrack and find out should there be a breech," McGuire said.

The process will allow staff quicker access to medical records, and eventually provide a patient portal. McGuire says the system is more efficient and will help ease the storage crunch caused by paper records.

Rachel Weatherford, KRCU

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Southeast HEALTH's Cancer Center opens its door today

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Cape Girardeau's health care industry will welcome its newest addition today...the Southeast HEALTH Cancer Center.


The $33 million facility, Southeast HEALTH's most expensive project to date, took two years to build.


Executive director Judy Aslin says that it isn't necessarily that cancer patients need a separate facility, but that Southeast HEALTH needed to expand. 


"Its become outpatient driven, and we could have done this on the hospital campus. We looked at facilties there and didn't have the space to do it. Many of the cancer patients either are debilitated or have become debilitated sometime with their disease and so the access is much easier at our free standing facility," Aslin says. 


Each year the center can tend to 800 oncology patients. In addition, the center will be capable of handling non-cancer patients, like people who need blood transfusions, hydration, and treatment for arthitis. The center will have medical oncologists who are also hematologists to treat amenia and blood disorders.


The center tends to cancer patients who need radiation oncology and medical oncology, among others.


The center will typically be used for outpatient care.


Rachel Weatherford, KRCU

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