Contact:
Lloyd Torres
Director, Special Projects
(718) 480-4023
Jamaica, NY - January 7, 2008 - From digital labs and X-rays to electronic medical records (EMR), The Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation is ahead of its long-term care peers when it comes to the electronic age in healthcare. Recently, Silvercrest has partnered with Precision Health, Inc. to provide digital X-rays and is also electronically connected to Charter Diagnostic Laboratory Services, a subsidiary of New York Hospital Queens (NYHQ). And this Spring, Silvercrest will unveil its new electronic medical record system.
The EMR implementation process has taken over a year, but soon Silvercrest staff will be able to input information onto a medical record at the bedside via small hand-held devices, computers set up in kiosks at nursing stations, or from laptops on medication and treatment carts. All relevant information will be immediately available to all clinical disciplines.
To facilitate this culture change, a labor and management information technology committee was created. And based on surveys and several "test-drive" focus groups, Silvercrest eventually chose eHealth Solutions SigmaCare for their electronic medical record system.
"Computerizing health records is not only more efficient, but more importantly, safer for patients than old-fashioned paper records," says Lloyd Torres, Director of Special Projects, who is leading electronic medical record implementation at Silvercrest. "Entries can be made in a timely way, and there is no misreading of orders because of illegible handwriting."
"As our patients are more acute, we need more sophisticated methods of managing the care provided not just by Silvercrest, but by all our partners in care including NYHQ, NewYork-Presbyterian, and home care," says Mr. Torres. "And all along the way we are being very mindful of privacy issues and have installed secure protections into our systems."
"Our health information technology capabilities allow us to provide our physicians with immediate access to medical records, radiology images, and laboratory results, thereby expediting and enhancing care for our patients," says Cosmo J. LaCosta, Senior Vice President and Administrator, The Silvercrest Center. "The needs of our patients are very complex. At Silvercrest, we're committed to leveraging technology in helping us fulfill our mission of Giving Quality to Life and Giving Quality to Care."
