Bangkok Hospital recognised for its use of electronic records

Bangkok Hospital has been recognised for its use of electronic medical records (EMR) by global rating organisation HIMSS Analytics.

The hospital is the latest of 30 healthcare institutions in Asia-Pacific (Apac) to achieve Stage 6 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM).

EMRAM is a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of EMR systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. Stages rated 0-7 measure a hospital’s use of information technology, with Stage 7 representing an advanced patient record environment.

Bangkok Hospital, a 287-bed facility, implemented the Trakcare EMR system from Intersystems, which it integrated with Medicomp’s clinical documentation system and Smart ICU system from Precept Health.

The hospital has integrated clinical decision support tools with structured documentation templates for both nurses and physicians, which directly interface vitals monitors, ventilators and infusion pumps into the electronic medical record, according to HIMSS Analytics’ global vice-president, Healthcare Advisory Services Group, John Daniels, who carried out the on-site validation at the hospital.

“The journey to adoption of Stage 6 EMRAM is important to improving patient care and enhanced patient safety, and leads to better healthcare analytics for driving the best service of the hospital,” said Bangkok Hospital’s CEO, Poramaporn Prasarttong-Osoth.

The goal is to become a leading data-driven hospital, said Bangkok Hospital CIO Somsak Wankijcharoen, who led the transformation project. “HIMSS Analytics EMRAM gave us a roadmap to achieve this goal. This is the approach to facilitate our world-standard clinical services,” said Wankijcharoen.

Bangkok Hospital is the second healthcare institution in Thailand to achieve a Stage 6 rating. There are currently four healthcare institutions in Asia-Pacific at Stage 7.

As one of the first private hospitals in Thailand, Bangkok Hospital has expanded its operations to become a tertiary care facility with dedicated hospitals for cancer and cardiology.

Achieving the full digital transformation of care delivery processes can help reduce medical errors, improve cost efficiencies, improve patient care quality and clinical decision support for physicians, and potentially set apart the hospital from other hospitals, said Ashwin Moduga, research manager for health insights at IDC Asia-Pacific.

In particular, hospitals offering acute, specialty and tertiary care are more likely to work towards certifications such as HIMSS, which is currently the most recognised evaluation tool for EMR adoption for health providers, said Moduga.

“It is a platform that allows them to self-evaluate in comparison with hospitals globally. More than certification, EMR or IT adoption for care processes in general will result in the overall improvement of care delivery quality.”

Digital transformation is a current trend among specialty care hospitals in the Apac region. “IDC research found that almost 85% of specialty care hospitals in Asia-Pacific are now on a path to complete and wholesome digital transformation, with 21% of them already paperless,” said Moduga.

“Digital transformation is also driven by its ability to reduce fatigue on health professionals and resources, which is a major issue in the region. As the ratio of health professionals to patients continues to dwindle, dependence on IT is expected to rise and certifications such as the HIMSS will become a by-product of this natural progression.”