On June 5, 2007, the Emergency Department at Spalding Regional Medical Center launched a new paperless tracking and charting system that streamlines the patient experience including registration, triage, order entries, clinical documentation, discharge instructions and billing.

The automated process keeps a patient’s record together in one computerized file and eliminates the need to input the same data multiple times. This improves the efficiency of Spalding Regional’s Emergency Department and reduces the time physicians and staff has to spend entering patient information and tracking patient care. With the use of laptops and computers on wheels, physicians and staff members can enter patient information and orders into the computerized file throughout the department and at patient bedside.

These efficiencies can be passed along to emergency room patients who could benefit from decreased wait times. Patients also benefit from receiving clearer discharge instructions that are printed from the computerized system and contain more educational information about the diagnosis and care instructions. The Allscripts^TM Emergency Department system also can help reduce medical errors with legible prescriptions created on the computer.

“The A-4 system should help speed up the overall process for patients coming through the Spalding Regional Emergency Department,” says Dr. Chris Edens, Medical Director of the Spalding Regional Medical Center Emergency Department. “The computerized system will also help prevent medication errors and improve record-keeping as all physician notes and orders will be electronic and in one patient record in the system.”

The A-4 system is the latest of several efforts that the Spalding Regional Emergency Department has taken to improve the patient experience. Over the past three years, the department has seen a steady increase in patients and treated more than 46,000 patients in 2006. While the number of patients has increased, the department has worked on process improvements to reduce the percentage of patients that leave without treatment and overall length of stay in the emergency room.