The Brave New World of Systems Interoperability in Healthcare_LRB Changes

The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) creates a positive impact on quality of care by creating a single accessible and credible source for the patient’s historical record. One of the next ‘big things’ in healthcare delivery is using the EMR platform to create automation of routine tasks that occur in a hospital with a goal of streamlining the workflows that support patient care. Imagine a physician entering a prescription order at the patient bedside through an Integrated Bedside Terminal that is automatically dispensed in the hospital pharmacy. Then a Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) is automatically notified and picks up the patient medications, captures the elevator and then delivers the medications to the nursing station on the patient floor; or the patient’s room. Far-fetched? Not really. There are leading edge hospitals that are either looking at or designing this kind of technology because they see the benefit in terms of freeing up caregivers and creating efficiencies in workflow.