Health IT stakeholders received a first-hand look at health information technology and electronic health record implementation during a visit to The George Washington University Hospital last month as part of National Health IT week in the nation’s capital.
The facility, which is the closest hospital to the White House, welcomed representatives from several government agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, who were on-site for nearly two hours.
“The tour of GW was a valuable opportunity to showcase EHRs to a broad segment of federal agency staff,” said Sharon Canner, CHIME’s senior director of advocacy. “It was extremely successful in that it provided a real-world glimpse of how hospitals are preparing for achieving meaningful use.”
The tour included demonstrations of GW Hospital’s emergency department information systems, radiology PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System), order management and nursing documentation systems, as well as physician documentation and workflow.
While information technology analysts explained how the systems work, clinicians were also on-hand to share how these systems assist them in patient care.
“Inviting representatives from federal agencies to view health IT systems in action and learn about efforts in progress for achieving ‘meaningful use’ helps the health policy community better understand the benefits and challenges of real-world implementation,” said Gretchen Tegethoff, CIO and director of information technology at the George Washington University Hospital.
The event was sponsored jointly by the hospital, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Federal Health Community.
