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For years, community-based physicians and faculty alike have been clamoring for remote access to computerized clinical applications at Stanford and Packard hospitals. Such access would allow medical staff members to retrieve patient information, view diagnostic images, look up lab results, write medical orders and more, using any computer equipped with Internet access. That promises to make physicians' lives easier, save time and improve patient care.
Now, the IT department is preparing to give the doctors what they want.
A group of 20 physicians is participating in a pilot project - set to run from June 3 to June 28 - that will implement and test remote access to the hospitals' eight core clinical applications. Then, as early as July, remote access will be made available to all members of the medical staff.
"We've been hearing a lot of doctors saying, 'Why can't I have access to this information from my home or my (off-campus) office?' Now we're going to do it for them," said Stephen Locke, the interim director of technology services for the hospitals. "A lot of people are excited about this."
Andrew Newman, a physician on Welch Road who chairs Stanford Hospital's information systems committee, has been pushing for remote access for nearly a decade. "This is a really important project for the community physicians," he said. "We absolutely need to have integration with the hospital's clinical information systems."
Newman said community-based physicians, and their patients, frequently lose time waiting for lab test results or patient histories to be faxed over, or "playing phone tag" with nurses at the hospital in an attempt to convey orders verbally. With remote access, he explained, a community-based physician with a patient at the hospital could electronically retrieve recent lab test results and revise an IV medication order accordingly, without having to make multiple phone calls to the lab and the nurse's station. Remote access will also enable these physicians to have the patient's complete medical history at their fingertips, which could prevent procedures from being re-done and could help catch hidden medical problems. "It would be a phenomenal improvement in patient care," Newman said.
The eight applications to which remote access will be provided are the following:
- LastWord: the core clinical information system at Stanford Hospital, with all components including physician order entry
- Meditech: the LastWord counterpart at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital - IDX Rad: the information system for radiology
- SMS Invision: used for patient registration and some financial data
- Web View: used for viewing patient medical records online
- OR scheduling system: currently ORBIT, but soon to be replaced by a product called MMS
- Full access to Stanford's e-mail system, including the user's folders and ability to see old as well as new messages
- GE's PACS system (Picture Archiving and Communications System), which provides online access to most radiological imaging data
The pilot project is designed to work out any kinks and ensure that remote access is reliable and easy to use. Stringent security controls have been put in place to ensure that only authorized users can access the system. Those with remote access will be issued a "secure ID token," which displays a constantly changing password that users must input to verify their access.
When remote access is rolled out to all members of the medical staff, the IT department will arrange for signup and offer training sessions.
Larry Shuer, chief of the medical staff, described remote access as "a natural extension of our efforts to use electronic systems in patient care. You want to make this information available to those who need it, whenever and wherever they need it."
Physicians who would like to participate in the remote access pilot project should e-mail Locke at slocke@stanfordmed.org.
