DALLAS, USA - CHRISTUS Health, an international Catholic, faith-based, not-for-profit health system, and Samsung SDS, a global provider of information and communications technology, recently entered into a partnership to deliver the latest version of the Samsung SDS Electronic Medical Records (EMR) solution to CHRISTUS facilities.
The Samsung SDS EMR mobilizes physicians in engaging patients, improving clinical documentation accuracy, and enhancing overall patient care. It allows physicians to access patient data from any location securely; decreases the need for patients to fill out duplicate forms containing the same information (clinical history, etc.); does away with the need to ensure physician orders and notes in patient charts are legible, as all are handled electronically; and allows hospital leadership to identify trends in treatment at their hospital, driving efficiency and quality with evidence-based clinical research.
In May, CHRISTUS Health and Samsung SDS signed a long-term agreement to further enhance the EMR solution. Utilizing a multiphased approach, implementation teams from CHRISTUS Health worked together with on-site Samsung staff to successfully complete the initial pilot phase in June. The focal point of the pilot was a group of pilot physicians at CHRISTUS St. John Hospital and CHRISTUS St. Catherine Hospital who provided input on usability of the application. Their input will be used to improve the final product, which will be implemented at all CHRISTUS Health acute care facilities by 2013.
“We are honored to partner with Samsung SDS in such an important field,” said George Conklin, Senior Vice President and CIO, CHRISTUS Health. "I feel we have already made great strides in keeping patients safer by ensuring their health care data is more easily accessible to their physician and to each of them, and I look forward to delivering a product to all our facilities that makes transitioning to electronic medical records seamless and helps our caregivers become even more effective.”
“Our innovative approach to electronic medical records, and healthcare IT as a whole, will fundamentally change the way clinicians and patient view their interactions.” said Ken Cho, President of Samsung SDS America. “Both organizations recognize the critical role of healthcare IT in providing efficient, safe, and effective care to patients. We also understand that hospitals operate on ever tightening budgets and that they are expected to do more with less. We will work with hospitals to arrive at the most cost effective arrangements and strive to ensure that the very best in healthcare technology is made available to them.”
Samsung SDS‘s EMR is built upon layers of proven enterprise technology and communicates through the latest HL7 interfaces to complimentary systems such as PACS/RIS, LIS, eRx, etc. By partnering with CHRISTUS Health, Samsung SDS will utilize CHRISTUS Health’s comprehensive experience in delivering health care services and in integrating health care IT to enhance those services to ultimately benefit the patient. The CHRISTUS Health-Samsung SDS partnership includes co-marketing, as well as cooperative solution development. CHRISTUS Health will also benefit by having first access to future enhancements and additions offered by Samsung SDS.
In addition, both CHRISTUS Health and Samsung SDS are also working toward Phase Two of the EMR implementation, in which they will develop an entirely new EMR interface that moves away from traditional views of patient data (electronic views based on current paper record views) to one that capitalizes on the capabilities of the new devices and allows physicians to work faster with higher quality.
