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ECDS PRESS RELEASES - 2006
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pdf - 68.5 KB - 03/09/07 - 174
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EXPEDIENT CARE IN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT SAVES A PATIENT’S LIFE AT NEW BRITAIN GENERAL HOSPITAL
(New Britain, CT; November 2, 2006) – William Sherman entered The Hospital of Central Connecticut’s Bradley Memorial campus Emergency Department at 3:20 p.m. on November 2, believing he was having a heart attack. Sherman, 80, of Southington, was quickly transported to the New Britain campus cardiac catheterization laboratory where the cardiac team of physicians, nurses, and technicians awaited his arrival. Mr. Sherman’s medical records were immediately available, arriving electronically before he did. With the expedience with which his medical records were transferred, it’s safe to say it aided in saving his life.
A mere forty minutes after Mr. Sherman first arrived in the emergency department, doctors were performing primary coronary angioplasty, and by 5:30, the surgery was finished and Mr. Sherman’s condition had greatly improved—and a life was saved.
This is a story about a life saved, but it is also a story about how the merger of two hospitals saved critical time for Mr. Sherman. Before the merger of New Britain General and Bradley Memorial, such a move would have taken longer. Patients had to be officially transferred from one hospital to another and then readmitted. Copies of medical records had to be obtained and transferred with the patient. Now, there is no second admission, and patients’ medical records are already there in a comprehensive, electronic format.
In the Emergency Departments of both the New Britain and Bradley Memorial campuses, this patient record system, called EmpowER, is a timesaver that electronically tracks every patient’s encounter in the Emergency Department and can export that record immediately wherever it needs to go.
"The EmpowER System is really incredible,” says emergency department chairman Dr. Jeff Finkelstein. “It’s the patients who truly benefit, through increased accuracy, speed, and the many safeguards the system offers. We referred a patient to another facility, and one of their doctors called to say they had never seen such a well-organized and complete medical chart."
ABOUT NEW BRITAIN GENERAL HOSPITAL
Founded in 1899, New Britain General Hospital has been serving its neighbors for 106 years, providing care in a compassionate and expedient manner on an inpatient and outpatient level. And as a teaching hospital, NBGH is dedicated to providing an environment conducive to the education of physicians and health-related professionals, as well as continuing to evolve by adding new services and enhanced technology. |
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