For our March meeting, Jim Cole, the President and CEO of the Virginia
Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, arranged for Health Tech Net to
have a special tour of the Center's new, state of the art, hospital
building. The new facility is a model of patient-centered care and the
latest in medical technology. We had an opportunity both for a tour of the
new building and a discussion of the design of the facility and its
technology with Mr. Cole and other members of the management and technology
team.
Highlights of the new hospital facility include:
*an emphasis on patient and visitor comfort with all private rooms
and bathrooms, day beds for visitors, and internet data ports in every
room;
*patient concierge greeting and escorts, and in-room private
admissions;
*state-of-the-art emergency room with decontamination showers and
HIPAA compliant treatment areas;
*new film-less imaging technology;
*an advanced data retrieval system, Mercury MD, that provides
physicians with instant, secure access to patient records
via portable, handheld devices. This includes up-to- the-minute lab
results, radiology reports, vital signs and medication lists.
The Hospital was, and continues to be, very deliberative in its technology
purchasing decisions, and we had an opportunity to discuss this
decision-making process with both Carl Bahnlein, Exec. VP/COO, who
shepherded the
building project from start to finish, and Dr. Russell McWey, Chief Medical
Information Officer.