St. Rose Hospital Cardiologists implements CVIS from McKesson

St. Rose Hospital of Hayward, Calif., is accelerating report turnaround times and providing cardiologists with secure remote access to echocardiogram and EKG reports, thanks to a new cardiovascular information solution (CVIS) from McKesson. The 163-bed, acute-care hospital has successfully implemented McKesson’s Horizon Cardiology^™ CVIS to manage diagnostic digital images as well as archiving, reporting and workflow.

“This system gives me instant access to the highest-quality digital images 24 hours a day,” said Dr. Pradeep Kumar, the chief of Cardiology at St. Rose Hospital. “This is significant because faster treatment time equates to positive results and overall improvement in quality of care.”

The cardiology system implementation follows a successful deployment of McKesson’s picture archiving and communications system (PACS), which acquires, distributes and archives medical images and diagnostic reports across the enterprise. St. Rose installed the PACS system in June 2008 and since then, it has reduced radiology report turnaround times from 12 hours to 10 minutes. The hospital also has decreased film and processing costs by 90 percent while increasing the satisfaction of radiologists and other physicians.

The new cardiovascular information system enhancement complements the designation of St. Rose Hospital as a Cardiac Receiving Center for Alameda County, providing emergency lifesaving angioplasties for the immediate treatment of heart attacks. The hospital’s average “door-to-balloon” time is 67 minutes, one of the lowest in Alameda County. St. Rose Hospital has performed more than 2,400 interventional and diagnostic procedures since the opening of its new cardiovascular lab.

St. Rose installed Horizon Cardiology in phases, starting in the cardiac cath lab and in the echocardiography department for image storage and reporting. Non-invasive cardiology, EKG management and Web-based reporting followed soon after. With each phase, the CVIS was interfaced with St. Rose’s current healthcare information system (HIS) to provide automated order and report sharing between the two systems. Once the hospital completes implementation of the McKesson Paragon^® community HIS, the PACS system will be completely integrated with the HIS.

Paragon is designed to address the unique needs of community hospitals. With its implementation, St. Rose can enable quicker, more informed decision-making, enhanced communication and improved efficiency by providing immediate access to important patient information whenever and wherever the care team needs it. Paragon was recently rated No. 1 in its category in the 2008 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards reports.

“We want to make our patients aware of how information technology can further improve safety and the quality of care,” said Michael Mahoney, president and chief executive officer of St. Rose Hospital. “By automating every aspect of the workflow process, we feel we will be able to better accommodate our patients’ increased needs for emergent and critical care services.”

“With its strong vision for the future, St. Rose Hospital continues to set a high standard for the use of technology in community hospitals,” said Rod O’Reilly, vice president and general manager, Horizon Medical Imaging, McKesson Provider Technologies. “McKesson is pleased to partner with the team to put the building blocks in place for St. Rose Hospital to provide the ultimate differentiator – an electronic medical record.”