The Ford Motor Company chose a woman to design the interior of its Taurus model. The Boeing Company had flight attendants design the passenger compartment of its 767. So perhaps it's not out of the ordinary that two local hospitals are using software designed by a pair of emergency room doctors in order to accelerate the assessments of incoming patients.
Mountain View Hospital, 3100 N. Tenaya Way, and Sunrise Hospital, 3101 S. Maryland Parkway, utilize a computerized tracking and charting software called the T-System EV.
The advantages seem obvious -- no more confusion over illegible handwriting, no more lost charts, no more waiting nearly a week for notes to be transcribed.
"A lot of hospitals nationwide are going to it," said Kathy Banusevich, registered nurse and director of emergency services at Mountain View Hospital. "It puts us ahead of the curve."
Emergency room Drs. Woodrow Gandy and Robert Landen of Dallas designed software, with input from emergency room nurses.
Terri Vargo, clinical coordinator of pediatrics at Sunrise Hospital, said she liked that the software is updated as new medications became available.
"And doctors in the city appreciate it because they can use it to remotely access a patient's hospital report," she said.
Before the T-System EV, doctors used a paper chart to circle symptoms and cross out others. Specifics still had to be written down.
The computerized system follows the same chart, but takes those circles and crossed out text and transforms them into written text.
Sandy Torcivia, clinical coordinator at Mountain View, said she appreciated not having to scrutinize doctors' handwriting.
"It eliminates me having to run around and track down someone to say, 'Was this what you meant?' " she said.
Dr. John Henner, emergency room physician at Mountain View, said the system's No. 1 benefit was as a risk management tool, its second as a communications tool and its third as a diagnostic tool.
"People who see this as a document tool are short selling what it can do," said Henner.
William Bigelow, a retired executive, was an ER patient. Hesaid the electronic system helped ensure the proper drugs and dosages were given.
"I realize that's been a concern for people, and by the hospital using (a computerized system), it certainly makes me feel better," the northwest resident said.
After patients check in at triage, the on-duty physician assesses their illnesses or injuries and determines the necessary treatments. The triage physician or nurse can take blood and X-rays, as well as administer pain medications and antibiotics. In some instances, patients can be treated in the triage area and released.
Henner put a dummy patient into the system who arrived at the ER with chest pains. Then he proceeded to mark off the various symptoms such a patient might present. The software even has a code system for patient comments.
"It's four pages, but I can click and drag to mark normal levels," he said.
A couple clicks of the mouse later, and the imaginary patient's chart was completed, taking perhaps 30 seconds.
If it was done by hand using traditional paperwork, the doctor estimated it would take 15 minutes to write down all the symptoms and five days before a transcription service could have it in text form.
The northwest hospital sees an average of 126 ER patients a day. Sunrise sees approximately 215. Sunrise currently is only using the software for pediatric ER cases; it treats 35,000 children a year, with 70-80 of them brought to the ER each day. Sunrise plans to utilize the system for adults sometime next year.
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