I’m pleased to announce that we met the first hurdle; after nearly 3,000 man hours and $2.5 million that has gone into prepping the hospital, staff and physicians to “Go Live!,” we did. But it hasn’t been easy, especially for a community hospital that was already behind in IT infrastructure.  It has taken tremendous efforts of our staff and great support from our Board to buy and build the Paragon EMR.
In the computer training center on our campus, more than 30 key employees from various departments (Super Users) worked with system experts to build the program for St. Luke’s EMR. Prior to our Go Live date in June, these Super Users experienced a week of integrated testing to help identify areas for improvement in the programming and workflow. Once all the “glitches” were corrected, all system users, including physicians, were trained on the new EMR.
During the big switch to the new program, more than 40 Paragon experts, Carolinas HealthCare System consultants and banks of computers were set up in the temporary Command Center (our Boardroom) to answer questions and address any issues that came up with the launch. Considering the buzz of activity as our staff switched to the new system, the Command Center was amazingly quiet and the transition relatively smooth.
Thanks to outstanding leadership and staff commitment, St. Luke’s Hospital proudly joined the ranks of other larger healthcare systems with electronic medical records and wireless connectivity to the internet, a nice benefit for our patients!
While we may still look and feel a little overwhelmed with this monumental change in our workflow and patient care processes, please know that we are working hard to make this transition with little disruption and with exceptional care, close to home.