OR Manager - February 2018 - 8

Finances
Continued from page 7
surgeons are still unhappy with the
switch to the current suture provider
even though the change saved the system
more than $1.1 million in 1 year.
EHR conversion
Before the acquisition, UPMC Altoona's
EHR system, like that of many hospitals,
was fragmented. Different areas
used different systems, and some,
such as the postanesthesia care unit
and same-day surgery, still used paper.
The hospital created an 18-month
plan to convert to a Cerner EHR. " Some
things with Cerner are not as good as
our previous system, but from a safety
perspective, the integration is a huge
benefit, " Kopera says. Now OR clinicians
can review x-rays and see what treatment
patients received in the physician's office
or the emergency department. " It's
all right there in front of you, " she says.
Making the switch, however, meant
reviewing multiple preference cards.
" We had to build more than 1,000
cards because you couldn't copy and
paste from the current system to the
new one, " Kopera says. " And it all had
to be done in addition to our daily operations. "
OR
leaders focused on the highest
volume cases for the initial implementation.
" The key is getting the right people
to do it, " Kopera says. " You need to
have people with sufficient experience. "
Staff worked on laptops at home
and on weekends, and regular reports
helped leaders track progress. The reports,
which could be sorted by specialty,
included surgeon name, procedure,
who was assigned to review the
card, and when the card was completed.
" Having that tool really helped, " Kopera
says. " You have to make reviewing
and entering cards a priority because
it's easy to let that slip. "
Scheduling provided its own challenges.
With the previous system, a
surgeon's office could schedule a patient
via computer, and the information
would populate the OR schedule.
Although the office can still schedule
a patient by computer, the information
also must be manually entered into the
surgery system, Kopera says.
UPMC Altoona also had to devise a
plan for scheduling anesthesia off location
(such as interventional radiology)
and scheduling after hours (OR staff do
this now).
A trainer from corporate services presented
the scheduling changes as a
webinar to staff in more than 60 physician
offices. " It was important for us
We do the little things right so
you can do the big things well.
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OR Manager - February 2018

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