Electronic records continue quality care

On Saturday, St. Luke's Hospital will implement the Electronic Health Record, EPIC, the first hospital in the metro area to do such. This implementation maintains St. Luke's and Iowa Health System at the leading edge of population management and care coordination.

For two years I have represented St. Luke's in this creative endeavor. During that time it has become crystal clear to me why our community enjoys low cost/high quality health care. This enjoyment is made possible because we have a strong independent medical staff that is shared between two hospitals. This formula creates standardization of orders and protocols that are evidence-based. For example, Physicians' Clinic of Iowa surgeons agreed upon a single paradigm of care that was evidence-based and low cost. This provided consistency and continuity of care regardless of the institution the surgeon may be covering.

Our community is so blessed to have dedicated and diligent professionals. When presented with a challenge of implementation of an EPIC, our community physicians have not been reluctant or passive; instead, they have embraced this monumental voyage of change with the spirit of improving the care of their patients. Their training has been intense and they have sacrificed time with family to become competent to use the EPIC.

I am proud to call each of these physicians my colleagues.

Dr. Dustin L. Arnold

St. Luke's director

of Medical Affairs,

chief medical

information officer