Helping an integrated health system achieve

high performance with a leading-edge

electronic medical records capability

The new integrated EMR system has helped the health system
establish a patient-centric environment that enables operational
efficiencies and promotes better communication and collaboration
among clinicians and staff throughout the organization.
Business challenge
The integrated health system is part
of a larger non-profit health system
that purchased a number of clinical
information system applications and
modules from Cerner Corporation. The
objective was to enable the creation
of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
that would integrate elements of a
patients health history, medication
information, test results and treatment
plans in an electronic format.
Earlier, the health system had
launched an ambitious program to
enhance the safety, efficiency and
effectiveness of care by improving and
standardizing processes, implementing
new technologies and building a new
state-of-the-art inpatient facility. The
health system purchased additional
clinical modules from Cerner to deliver
an even more robust solution for its
clinicians and staff.
The health systems decision to adopt
EMR capabilities provides evidence
that the organization is on the path
to high performance. According
to a 2007 Accenture study, health
care industry executives believe the
potential to improve patient care
and reduce errors through EMRs
is enormous. Better information
sharing, reductions in clinical errors
and lost medical records, and greater
efficiencies in patient billing are
among the anticipated benefits. These
findings reinforce an earlier Accenture
study, which revealed that 71 percent
of health care executives believe
that EMRs can also have a positive
financial effect on their organizations
by lowering administrative and medical
costs. Patients are equally excited
by the prospect of EMRs. Accenture
surveys have revealed that more than
90 percent of American consumers

believe digital records can improve

quality of care, and approximately 75
percent expect EMRs to reduce overall
health care costs and shorten waiting
times in doctor offices and hospitals.
Despite the enthusiasm, just 11 percent
of physicians surveyed use electronic
records.
The integrated health system knew
that it was important to work with
a service provider that had a solid
track record of overseeing smooth
and successful EMR implementations.
Ultimately, it selected Accenture for
its deep industry and technology
skills, its proven experience in
Cerner deployments, and its program
and transformation management
capabilities. Also important was
Accentures demonstrated commitment
to helping provider systems achieve
high performance and enabling
an improved health care experience
for patients.
Accentures experience and ongoing
High Performance Business research
reveals that high performance
businesses gain a competitive
edge by establishing distinctive
and hard-to-replicate capabilities.
This is certainly true of the health
care sector. Accenture research
has confirmed that industry leaders
continuously build capabilities
aimed at improving patient safety,
operational efficiencies and the overall
patient experience. This integrated
health system is no exception.

How Accenture helped

Accenture assembled a team of
professionals from its Accenture Global
Health Industry Practice group to
help implement the EMR software to
support physicians, nurses and other
clinicians in the hospital and clinic

settings. Accenture also worked closely

with the client and Cerner resources
throughout the projects two-year
implementation. Specifically, Accenture
provided oversight of the complex
implementation program using a
modified version of the Accenture
Delivery Methodology, through which
the project team applied standard
methods and tools to deliver a highquality, reliable, predictable and costeffective solution.
Under Accentures program
management direction, the project
team planned, analyzed, designed,
built, tested and deployed a number
of software modules on the Cerner
Millennium information technology
computing platform. The main
component of the new system was
the PowerChart solution suite, which
enabled the hospital to view clinical
data. This simple interface, with its
common look and feel, provided a
marked improvement over an earlier
legacy viewing system that pulled
records from disparate systems and
presented them in a non-unified way.
PowerChart Office was also introduced
to bridge the gap between the systems
hospital and clinic settings and to
eliminate the clinics legacy paperbased information management
system.
More than 175 clinic physicians
are using the new system, which
automates key functions such as
computer-generated faxing of
prescriptions. Together, PowerChart
and PowerChart Office form the basis
of a complete EMR capability. The
team implemented and integrated
other Cerner solution components,
including:
SurgiNet, a surgery and anesthesia

information system, that addressed

intra-operative aspects of surgical
patient care, including scheduling
and reporting, monitoring of patient
status and complete documentation
pertaining to intra-operative
scenarios.

at the health system. By co-sourcing

these applications to Accenture,
the health system has gained the
flexibility to focus on other critical
business imperatives while realizing
increased value and lower costs
through improved performance.

ProFile enabled the organization

to manage, direct and track paperbased records.

High performance delivered

Enterprise Master Person Index,

provided a central repository for
patient master data relating to
information areas like demographic,
employer and insurance details.
Enterprise Schedule Management
that allowed the hospital to improve
its inpatient patient scheduling
process across departments.
Anatomic Pathology replaced a
legacy system with an integrated
solution to support laboratory
processes and functions such as
specimen management, reporting
and pathology imaging.
eSignature solution allowed
physicians to sign documents
from anywhere, using an
electronic signature.
In addition to the Cerner
implementations, Accenture
managed the work effort to create
an overarching training curriculum
and a number of specific training
modules, which the hospital then used
to educate close to 5,000 end users on
the systems use and functionality. The
Accenture team was also responsible
for redesigning workflows to allow the
health care system to take maximum
advantage of its new EMR capability.
Based on the success of the Phase
1 effort and Accentures worldclass outsourcing capabilities and
experience, the health system then
asked Accenture to co-manage and
maintain the new Cerner applications
(and other core applications) for five
years. Accenture is currently comaintaining these applications on-site

In its efforts to achieve high

performance, this integrated health
system is committed to enhancing
the safety and quality of patient care.
By overseeing the implementation
of a single electronic health record
system for all clinical environments,
Accenture has helped the health
system take a step towards achieving
this goal and creating a more
satisfying patient experience.
The new integrated EMR system has
helped the health system establish
a patient-centric environment that
enables operational efficiencies and
promotes better communication and
collaboration among clinicians and
staff throughout the organization.
Patient records are now immediately
available to clinicians across the
enterprise and even via remote
access. This means physicians
can respond to patient needs
in a timelier manner. Structured
workflows and documentation
tools are further helping strengthen
patient care and provide the health
care systems staff with complete
access to the patients demographic,
clinical and insurance information
in all care settings. According to the
systems vice president and chief
information officer, Accenture has
helped us deploy a solution that is
not only facilitating a safer journey
throughout the health care process
for our patients, but also is helping
us distinguish ourselves from our
competitors. Patients want their
health care providers to offer safe,
cost-effective and high-quality care.
The EMR solution is helping us meet
and exceedthose expectations.
Indeed, patients already are realizing

the benefits of the new system. The

medication profile of patients visiting
the integrated health systems clinics
is kept up to date, thus eliminating
the need for patients to provide
medication information at every
clinic visit. Hospital staff members
are able to schedule patients for
procedures, locate available clinical
resources across the organization
and manage reimbursements more
efficiently than ever before. Clinic
physicians are also able to auto-fax
prescriptions to local pharmacies.
These faxed prescriptions translate
into fewer pharmacy errors.
With Accentures help, the integrated
health system is fundamentally
changing the way it delivers health
care services and, in the process,
taking significant steps toward
high performance.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management
consulting, technology services
and outsourcing company.
Combining unparalleled experience,
comprehensive capabilities across
all industries and business functions,
and extensive research on the worlds
most successful companies, Accenture
collaborates with clients to help
them become high-performance
businesses and governments. With
approximately 177,000 people serving
clients in more than 120 countries,
the company generated net revenues
of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year
ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page
is www.accenture.com.

Copyright 2009 Accenture

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High Performance Delivered
are trademarks of Accenture.

About Accentures Health

Industry Practice
Accentures health service group
provides innovative solutions to
both the private and public sectors
of the health care industry, including
integrated health care providers, health
insurers, managed care organizations
and public health organizations. The
company has thousands of resources
dedicated to helping organizations in
the health industry achieve and sustain
high performance.