Angleton Danbury Med Ctr Gets Eforms Forms Directly Into EMRs w/ Access Intelligent Forms Suites

May 3, 2012 - PRLog -- Angleton Danbury Medical Center, an acute care facility based in Angleton, Texas, needed a way to get forms into the MEDITECH Scanning and Archiving document management application without paper, to standardize patient forms and to create barcoded wristbands. Hospital administrators selected Access Intelligent Forms Suite to meet these needs.

“Access’s electronic forms management technology is proven to be effective and to integrate with MEDITECH,” said Owen Huett, Director of Information Systems at Angleton Danbury. “We want to be as paperless as possible, and recognized that Access’s solutions would help achieve this.”

Previously, an admissions clerk registered a patient in the MEDITECH HIS, and then retrieved hard copies of the required forms. When the patient got to a clinical floor, a nurse pulled the forms needed by their department – another time-consuming, laborious process. The challenge was compounded by a lack of forms standardization, and version control issues resulting from use of outdated forms.

Access Intelligent Forms Suite transformed this process. Now, when the patient is registered, the admissions clerk simply clicks a button, and all required forms are generated on demand, with patient demographics applied. The patient quickly completes the forms and applies a secure, electronic signature with Access e-Signature, via an LCD pad. Completed forms are sent directly into the correct patient’s EMR via seamless integration between the Access system and MEDITECH Scanning and Archiving (SCA).

“With Access’s Image Portal, we push e-forms into MEDITECH Scanning and Archiving without generating paper or manual indexing,” Huett said. “This is a huge time saver and we know the forms are going into the right medical record.”

The benefits don’t end there. Once registration is complete, the Access system generates the required clinical forms to a nurse’s station, helping clinicians proactively prepare for the patient’s arrival. A barcoded wristband is also created, which is enhanced by a patient photo taken by the registration staff – another way of ensuring positive patient identification.

“The ability to output e-forms and a barcoded armband at the same time is extremely valuable,” Huett said. “We also plan to make us of the armbands in supporting bedside medication verification.”

This is just one of the ways that Angleton Danbury intends to extend its Access solution. Huett and his team are considering using Access e-Signature to capture bedside consents and social services forms. In addition, the hospital sees potential in Access Universal Document Portal, which could capture output from the hospital's fetal monitors, standardize it and send it into the EMR via MEDITECH SCA – another paperless, hands-free process.

“Instead of us cutting up fetal monitoring strips, sticking them down and scanning them, we could use Access Universal Document Portal to easily and cost-effectively get them into EMRs,” Huett said.

About Angleton Danbury Medical Center

Founded in 1969, Angleton Danbury Medical Center is an acute care hospital that serves the residents of Brazoria County, Texas. With a state-of-the art Surgical and Cardiac Care Unit, the Frank W. Stevens Center for Health and Wellness and a $22 million renovation recently completed, Angleton Danbury offers innovative technology and the latest patient processes across a full spectrum of care. Learn more at www.admc.org

About Access
Access is the world’s leading electronic forms (e-forms) management, automation and workflow software provider. Our solutions transform any paper-intensive forms process into a paperless, collaborative workflow. Hundreds of hospitals worldwide are using Access solutions to improve patient care and safety, cut costs and enhance electronic health records (EHR), patient safety and downtime planning initiatives. Learn more at http://www.accessefm.com