Rural Populations

Implemented an interactive video-conferencing system at rural hospitals to provide continuing education for pharmacist and pharmacy technicians as well as a model for bedside verification of medication administration and medication bar coding; also evaluated structure, process, and outcomes related to improvement of patient safety and more effective patient medication management.

Implemented a Patient-Centered Medication Information System (PCMIS) to provide secure access to accurate, complete, and current medication information for patients, clinicians, pharmacists, and nurses, reconciled differences in medication information, and provided a platform for evidence-based decision support; assessed the benefits and costs of the system.

The overall objective of this project was to study the impacts of health information technology implementation on workflow processes in six primary and specialty ambulatory care practices.

Implemented a comprehensive, integrated, EHR system with CPOE and clinical decision-support tools in hospital inpatient units, ambulatory care, primary care and specialty clinics, home health, and hospice care; also evaluated medical errors and near misses, use of evidence-based practices, responsiveness to adverse drug alerts, and patient/provider satisfaction.

Created a community-wide EMR with integrated clinical decision support that is available across the continuum of care including a rural hospital, a home health agency, 14 physician clinics, and 5 long-term care facilities.

This project documented, studied, and reported the engagement of six primary care practices that use electronic health records that were linked to the Secure Medical Records Transfer Network through a local data repository.

Implemented an outpatient EMR in a rural health system using distinct phases to match the expected learning curve and to reduce the potential loss of practice productivity often associated with the implementation of an EMR; also collected data about patient safety, quality, access, cost, and productivity.