Cantwell bill could help small hospitals

Smaller hospitals and clinics would get federal help to tie into the technology of some of the nation’s more advanced medical centers under legislation being introduced by Sen. Maria Cantwell.

During a visit to Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center, the Washington Democrat said spreading technology can help the hospitals cut down on errors and save lives while reducing health costs.

“Spokane is already on the cutting edge of technology … even more than some parts of Seattle,” she said.

Hospital staff had shown her how Sacred Heart has replaced paper charts with computerized records for each patient, and tracks them on laptop computers in each room. Patients, their treatment schedules and even their individual doses of medicine have bar codes that are scanned to verify a procedure or check for the right time and quantity of a prescription.

Reading a patient’s treatment history is a matter of pulling up a computer file, instead of locating and transferring a stack of papers.

Doctors and nurses can monitor patients’ vital signs and other medical progress on personal digital assistants tied to the hospital’s own cellular network.

A separate computer system ties the medical center’s pharmacy to small hospitals, clinics and drug stores around the state. Sacred Heart was hooking up to a pharmacy in Forks, Wash., on the Olympic Peninsula, while Cantwell was viewing the system.

“Many Washington state hospitals have been leaders in technology, but we need to make sure our community health centers also have access to this level of patient care,” said Cantwell.

The Health Information Technology Improvement Act, which she and 20 other senators introduced last week, would provide about $100 million in federal funds over the next two years to help smaller medical facilities tap in to health information systems like Sacred Heart has. It would also set national standards for the way information is shared among doctors and health-care facilities, to ensure security and privacy.

“It would solve the hard problem of having common data standards,” Cantwell said.

Better technology can cut costs by reducing costly errors, she said. Easily accessible electronic medical files can also eliminate the need to repeat tests when the files can’t be found or would take too long to reach the medical staff.