Cda Hospital To Link With Spokane’S Data System

Kootenai Medical Center of Coeur d’Alene is switching computer medical information systems this fall, linking with the same network serving Spokane’s major hospitals.

After using a well-known information system for 18 years, Kootenai administrators have decided to move to the same system operated by Sacred Heart, Deaconess, Spokane Valley and Holy Family medical centers.

“Changing your information system is fairly traumatic,” said Tom Legel, Kootenai Medical’s vice president for finance.

“We thought long and hard about it, and decided working with the Spokane hospitals made sense,” said Legel.

KMC, a 225-bed hospital, will spend $850,000 implementing the new information system, he said. It’s dropping the HBOC system developed by McKesson, a San Francisco medical services corporation.

The switch from HBOC to the Meditech system used by the other hospitals will occur Oct. 1, Legel said.

Kootenai is plugging into a record system managed and operated by Inland Northwest Health Services, a nonprofit cooperative corporation.

The Meditech system is considered one of the most advanced available. It coordinates a wide array of patient medical data - from diagnostic and test history to up-to-date insurance data, and from dietary summaries to pharmaceutical records.

INHS coordinates services for the hospitals operated by Empire Health Services, such as Deaconess Medical Center. It also helps the hospitals run by Providence Services, the corporation running Sacred Heart.

Kootenai will be the 27th regional hospital using the Meditech system.

The geographic reach and the ease of sharing medical information was one reason Kootenai switched systems, Legel said.

Patients treated at Kootenai will now see easier transfer of medical records if they are admitted at any of the 26 other regional hospitals.

“That hospital can now gain access to past X-rays or lab tests from KMC,” and vice-versa, said Legel.

Another advantage is that Meditech’s system does a better job of integrating medical and patient data than HBOC, said Legel.

Doctors monitoring a patient receiving several prescription drugs need to know about interactions with other drugs and whether certain diets will create side-effects.

The Meditech system is superior in advising doctors and nurses about those interactions, Legel said.

The primary costs for Kootenai are licensing the Meditech software and installing additional network hardware for the system.

IHNS, which also operates services such as Northwest Medstar, will cover costs of installing computer terminals and maintaining the system, said Mike Smyly, assistant director of information services for INHS.

Operating costs for Kootenai’s new system will be $150,000 to $180,000 a year, Legel said.

“Those operating costs will be less than what we have been paying for the previous system,” he added.