St. Francis, iSALUS healthcare partner to improve discharge process for heart patients

INDIANAPOLIS – St. Francis Heart Center and iSALUS healthcare™ have successfully partnered on a unique Discharge Module that helps nurses and doctors more easily coordinate medicines and other discharge needs for cardiac patients leaving the hospital, reducing paperwork time, providing patient education and improving recovery time.

The Web-based Discharge Module allows physicians and nurses to review medicines the patient was taking before entering the hospital, did take while in the hospital and will need after leaving the hospital. Traditionally, this process is time-intensive and involves health care professionals either reviewing documents in a paper chart or logging into multiple software programs to create discharge medication, education and recovery plans for each patient.

This first-of-its kind service provides all of the information in one software program as a service application. Since it is also Web-based, health-care professionals caring for the patient can securely access the information from any computer with Internet access instead of only those that may be connected to a specific computer network.

It also allows the specialists who treated the patient in the hospital to electronically share this information via a secured Internet connection with the patient’s primary care physician instead of sending it by mail, fax or with the patient.

“We’re excited about this new service iSALUS developed for us because it allows our nurses to spend more time with the patient instead of on paperwork,” said Michael Hertel, executive director, St. Francis Heart Center. “It also allows the attending physicians to securely review the medication and other discharge plans from almost anywhere they might be – which in some cases means patients may be able to go home sooner.”

While more physician practices, clinics and hospitals are adopting electronic medical records, this is the first solution to bridge the gap between inpatient and office-based medical record information systems using the Web. Most hospitals and physicians have separate systems that require login into multiple software tools.

“This is a bold model that could help transform the way a patient’s care is coordinated in and out of the hospital,” said Mark Day, CEO, iSALUS healthcare. “The leaders at St. Francis and their physician colleagues are truly visionary because they saw an opportunity to improve the discharge process for cardiac patients. This is just one of many places in the health care system where different healthcare professionals need secure access to a patient’s information. This service bridges a gap between hospital systems and electronic medical records in physician offices and we look forward to making this available to other hospital systems across the country.”

Surgeons on deck to see patients at St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville

MOORESVILLE, Ind. – Indy Southside Surgical will soon move into a new office suite at St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville.

The office will be opened Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will serve as the primary office for Mark Edwards, M.D.; David Mandelbaum, M.D.; and Mathew Libke, M.D., will see patients there part-time. They will be located in the Professional Center at the hospital, 1203 Hadley Rd., Mooresville.

The general surgeons perform digestive tract, colon and rectum, breast and gall bladder procedures. Also, they remove skin and subcutaneous lesions and repair all types of hernias. Many of the procedures are minimally invasive, using laparoscopic techniques.

Plans call for the surgeons to begin seeing patients in Mooresville in late February.

The new surgical practice comes at a time as the Mooresville hospital nears completion of a $42 million expansion. The project is expected to be completed in mid-April and includes more private patient rooms, new surgery suites, an intensive care unit and expanded laboratory services.

The Mooresville hospital also will offer a new emergency department and a new medical office building for the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery, scheduled for opening in the second half of 2008.

Indy Southside Surgical also maintains an office on the St. Francis Hospital-Indianapolis campus at 5255 E. Stop 11 Rd., Suite 450.

Project leader will steer development of documentation system

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INDIANAPOLIS – Charlie Randolph has been appointed to lead a new on-line documentation project system at St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers.

Randolph of Speedway, Ind., will oversee a multidisciplinary team with other hospitals designing and implementing the next phase of the clinical on-line system, Horizon Expert Documentation.

The hospitals are part of a network of 13 hospital campuses in Indiana and Illinois owned and operated by the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, Inc., one of the largest health-care systems in Indiana.

A registered nurse, Randolph most recently served as the clinical manager for the progressive care unit at the Heart Center based at St. Francis Hospital-Indianapolis. He also has extensive experience with technical and electronic health-care systems and equipment.

Randolph, who received his undergraduate degree in nursing from Marian College in 1997, was inducted as a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Society for Nursing Leadership in 2006.