Ashe Memorial Hospital Deploys PatientKeeper CPOE to Improve Patient Care, Achieve Meaningful Use

Critical Access Hospital in North Carolina completes rapid implementation in three months to help the hospital achieve ARRA-HITECH “Meaningful Use” standards in 2011

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PatientKeeper®, Inc., the leading provider of physician health information systems (HIS), today announced that Ashe Memorial Hospital, a Critical Access Hospital in Jefferson, N.C., has deployed PatientKeeper CPOE™, setting the hospital on a path to attain Stage 1 “Meaningful Use” certification and receive ARRA incentive payments in the 2011 calendar year.

“PatientKeeper partnered with us to add capabilities needed by our physicians”

Ashe Memorial is one of 60 hospitals that have already selected PatientKeeper CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry) both to meet the physician-facing elements of Stage 1 “Meaningful Use” criteria, and to ensure sufficient physician adoption to comply with the more stringent requirements of Stages 2 and 3.

PatientKeeper CPOE enables hospitals to rapidly and cost-effectively deploy a physician order entry system as an overlay to their current hospital information system; there is no need to “rip and replace” existing IT infrastructure. The application is embraced by physicians because it actually saves them time and does not require them to learn a new language to place orders. Furthermore, the system incorporates evidence-based medicine and drug alerting in a way that is meaningful for physicians.

“The implementation went extremely well and we’re very pleased with the support we’ve received from PatientKeeper,” said R.D. Williams, CEO of Ashe Memorial. “We have gotten our PatientKeeper Physician Portal and CPOE system up and running within 90 days thanks to the dedication of every team member and the coordination provided by our project leaders.”

Sara Houser, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer at Ashe Memorial and leader of the hospital’s CPOE project team, commended PatientKeeper for its assistance throughout the process. “PatientKeeper partnered with us to add capabilities needed by our physicians,” she said. “That’s particularly important from a doctor’s perspective, because technology should not dictate physician workflow, but rather enhance it.”

After PatientKeeper configured the system, Ashe’s physician partners validated the order sets and tested the system to ensure it worked in a seamless manner for all doctors. Using PatientKeeper CPOE, physicians can modify and personalize order sets over time within their normal workflow. As the system collects data on actual ordering practices, hospitals can incorporate and/or modify order sets as appropriate, creating personalized order sets for each physician.

“The rapid implementation of our CPOE system is a testament to the true partnership between PatientKeeper and Ashe Memorial,” said PatientKeeper CEO Paul Brient. “The entire process—from our early discussion of system configuration to training Ashe physicians leading up to the deployment—has been a model for future implementations.”

In addition to CPOE, Ashe Memorial also has deployed the PatientKeeper Physician Portal™, which provides a comprehensive view of clinical data from any web browser, and PatientKeeper Mobile Clinical Results™, which lets doctors access clinical data from smartphones and iPads. The next step is to deploy PatientKeeper NoteWriter™, which reduces the time it takes for physicians to write clinical notes and will put Ashe on a path to be compliant with Stage 2 Meaningful Use.

About Ashe Memorial

Established in 1941, Ashe Memorial Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the northwestern corner of North Carolina. Ashe Memorial is a rural hospital that has a remarkably sophisticated level of care for a county population of just over 25,000. In 2007, Ashe Memorial became a Critical Access Hospital. The hospital is licensed for 25 acute care beds, and also operates an adjacent 60-bed nursing home.

About PatientKeeper

PatientKeeper® Inc., the leading provider of physician healthcare information systems, enables physicians and hospitals to focus on their patients, not technology, by providing highly intuitive software that streamlines physician workflow to improve productivity and patient care. PatientKeeper’s CPOE, physician documentation, HIE and other applications run on desktop and laptop computers and virtually all handheld devices and tablets. PatientKeeper integrates easily with hospitals’ existing IT infrastructure to create the most cost-effective solution for driving physician Meaningful Use. For more information about PatientKeeper, which is headquartered near Boston, Mass., visit www.patientkeeper.com or call [phone].