Kaiser Permanente is well along the way on its plans to build a new, 314-bed hospital in Fontana, CA--but this time, it hopes to do something different. Not only is Kaiser focused on building a green building, it's also taking this chance to rethink how it handles its entire IT infrastructure. The new project will cost $700 million overall, including building, green modifications and new IT options. While Kaiser hasn't broken out the numbers, it's likely that this figure will include substantial money for IT investment, as Kaiser has pretty expansive plans.
The new hospital, of course, will be hooked up with Kaiser's Epic EMR installation, dubbed Health Connect. Health Connect terminals will be available at the bedside through computers with cards connected wirelessly to the network. But it plans to go well beyond that. For one thing, Fontana Medical Center will include a digital OR communication system offering real-time access to clinical data and images from varied system. Kaiser is also including digital radiology rooms, whose digital images will be available on demand to physicians, a patient monitoring system allowing for easier information sharing between teams, and many other upgrades.
To learn more about this project:
- read this Healthcare IT News article [1]
Related Articles:
Kaiser IT controversy fells top exec [2]
Kaiser's EMR facing state investigation [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/node/8020
[2] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/kaiser-controversy-fells-top-exec/2006-11-08
[3] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/kaiser-s-emr-facing-state-investigation/2007-02-20