Swedish Medical Implements Oracle Enterprise Content Management Software to Support New Electronic Medical Record System

Swedish Medical Implements Oracle Enterprise Content Management Software to Support New Electronic Medical Record System


REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. - Oracle today announced that Swedish Medical Center, the largest nonprofit healthcare provider in the Greater Seattle area, deployed components of the Oracle(r) Enterprise Content Management Suite - Oracle Universal Content Management and Oracle Imaging and Process Management - to deliver a content-enabled electronic medical record (EMR) system that helps ensure patient information is available when and where a provider needs it. Oracle enterprise content management software also facilitated Swedish Medical Center's EMR training initiative, helping the organization ensure an on-time rollout. Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite is a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

The new EMR system is accelerating the creation and management of patient records. One clinic, for example, had a basic patient records management system that required approximately 12 steps to pull information from faxes, attribute it to a specific patient and incorporate the data into the patient's record. Swedish Medical Center's new EMR system uses Oracle Imaging and Process Management to complete this task in only four steps, freeing staff to focus on other responsibilities. Swedish Medical Center also slashed the time that it took to assemble training materials for new and existing processes from 24 hours to as little as 4 hours for major productions, and even less time for individual manual productions.

Geographically dispersed across three hospital locations, a freestanding emergency room and specialty center, and more than 70 clinic locations, Swedish Medical Center implemented an EMR system - powered by Epic - to improve its ability to manage patient records and provide quality care. As part of this initiative, the healthcare provider required a content management system to capture and process document-based data that is external to the EMR database and can take a variety of forms - including paper and electronic formats. Swedish Medical Center selected Oracle Universal Content Management to manage Web-based content and Oracle Imaging and Process Management to capture and manage faxed or scanned documents.

"We needed a comprehensive content management system that provides support for document and image capture and management, as well as workflow," said Nancy Richards, Content and Document System Architect for Swedish Medical Center. "After evaluating the scope of the requirements, we decided to use components of the Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite for their scalability, reliability and standards-based architecture, as well as their ability to integrate with our electronic medical record system. These components, Oracle Universal Content Management and Oracle Imaging and Process Management, are fundamental to the overall success of our EMR system."

Enabling Improved Operational Efficiency and Patient Care
Swedish Medical Center began rollout of its EMR system in February 2007 and continues to deploy the solution and new functionality throughout its hospitals and clinics. The healthcare provider is deploying all of the Epic modules. This includes the Registration/ADT module where patient information is captured into the Oracle enterprise content management system for use throughout the balance of the patient care experience.

Integrating the EMR system with Oracle enterprise content management software will enable Swedish Medical Center to make patient charts readily available and accessible from any location in the Swedish Medical network when the rollout is complete. The integrated system is also expected to eliminate the need to wait for patient charts to arrive at the point of care as well as the use of local copies of records that are often incomplete.

The system is enabling Swedish Medical Center to standardize document management processes and workflows across its various facilities, making it easier for staff to move between and provide care in any setting. In addition, Swedish Medical Center is leveraging Oracle Universal Content Management to manage hospital standards, such as procedures for intubating a patient, preparing a surgical unit or delivering infant care. Previously this information was stored in multiple locations, creating the potential for version control issues.

Helping to Ensure a Successful Rollout
Swedish Medical selected ImageSource, a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, to help develop and deploy its EMR system. ImageSource worked with the Swedish Medical Center project team to identify and map key business processes, integrate the technology utilizing the ImageSource ILINX for EHR products, and manage the implementation. The collective team also planned an extensive training initiative that spanned many job functions from physicians and other clinicians to transport staff. The project team identified 72,000 learning opportunities - which translated to 90,000 hours of classroom training. A traditional training approach was not feasible given that Swedish Medical Center had only 10 education analysts and limited training rooms. To solve the EMR training challenges, ImageSource implemented its ImageSource ILINX Compilation Tool on top of the Oracle content management system. The resulting solution allows content owners to quickly build role-specific training materials by automatically pulling in the correct manuals, guides and learning modules from the content library. Using the new system, Swedish Medical required only 4 hours to produce training manuals, a task that previously took 24 hours.

Swedish Medical Center plans to extend its Oracle enterprise content management software implementation to address other business areas, including human resources management, contract management and facilities management. In addition, the organization will utilize Oracle enterprise content management software to provide expanded online information services to its patients over the Web, and leverage the integration between Oracle Financial Management and Oracle Imaging and Process Management to help accelerate accounts payable processes.

"Advanced enterprise content management capabilities that can capture and manage the full range of structured and unstructured data while helping to ensure security are an essential component of electronic medical record initiatives," said Neil de Crescenzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Life Sciences Global Business Unit, Oracle. "Oracle offers the industry's most integrated and complete enterprise content management platform that spans the entire spectrum of content, helping organizations reduce development and administration costs and increase productivity. As important for healthcare organizations like Swedish Medical, Oracle Fusion Middleware is standards-based, making it compatible with the wide array of systems found in today's healthcare settings."