Baystate Health is a national leader in the implementation of health information technology as part of its overall commitment to:

• Improving quality and safety of patient care
• Decreasing the global cost of care with better efficiency
• Engaging patients in their own care by improving communications and access
• Improving the coordination of care and transmission of information across and beyond our health system
• Improving the health status of the population
• Improve coordination of care across all components of our health system

These efforts put Baystate Medical Center in the top one percent of more than 5000 acute care hospitals in the USA.

Since 1991, Baystate has made the development and implementation of our Clinical Information System (CIS) a top priority.  CIS is a state of the art tool that enables our entire clinical staff, located in three hospitals and approximately 60 Baystate Medical Practices, , to retrieve and update information regarding your medical history and enter  orders for prescription drugs, lab tests and radiology/imaging to your electronic medical record.  This integrated electronic record makes it easier to access all relevant health information about you, speeds the delivery of quality care in urgent situations, and significantly decreases medical errors.

CIS provides:

• Instant electronic orders of prescriptions from your record to Baystate Pharmacy and community pharmacies. 

o   This reduces errors associated with handwritten prescriptions or the manual transcription of drug information to your record. 

o   It also integrates the prescription process with quality of care and safety features, such as checking for drug interactions, allergies and proper dosing of new medications based on age, weight and other important variables.

• Instant access 24/7 to your medical information

o   In the doctor’s office

o   At a hospital bedside

o   Even remotely via the internet at home or if the patient needs care out of area

• The ability for all Baystate providers of care – doctors, nurses, technicians – to document important information about you and the care you receive, directly into CIS, Baystate’s electronic medical record.

• A repository for lab results, diagnostic test results, and even radiographic images, that providers of care can retrieve in an instant.

• A single record that integrates all the inpatient, outpatient and medical office care you receive.  We also scan into your record information about any care or tests you received from non-Baystate facilities.

• A patient tracking system for the emergency department.  If you come to the emergency room, CIS provides up-to-moment vital information about your condition that will assist in swift decision-making and treatment.

• The ability for physicians to review diagnostic test results in an “inbox” and at the same time to generate reminders to themselves, messages to others, and correspondence to you during that review. 

o   We are also piloting read-only access by community and referring physicians so they can monitor their patients’ progress.

Other features of Baystate electronic medical record include:

• Positive Patient Identification (PPID) – Baystate Medical Center employs hand-held scanners and patient wristbands equipped with bar codes.  Since this system was implemented in 2008, we reduced serious medication dispensing errors reaching the patient to 0.8 per million doses dispensed.  This significant improvement in patient safety was due to the barcoding and positive patient identification initiative, and these results have been sustained during the 18 months following full implementation.

• Immunization Schedules.