Snapshot: URMC’s IT Culture

In 2003, when URMC developed its last information technology (IT) strategic plan, the emphasis was to embrace IT’s latest offering: the power to digitize patient information and modernize care by building electronic medical records (EMRs). Distinct applications were created to support the emergency department, the pharmacy, the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, and various inpatient units.

Unfortunately, while modernizing care delivery in individual departments, the technology had not yet paved the way for these distinct systems to “talk” to each other. This lack of “interoperability” has meant that when a patient’s information needs to be transferred to another department, these elegant, efficient data systems hit a wall: records must be transcribed to paper charts and travel by clipboard. As a result, critical information is sometimes omitted or lost, leading to duplication of data-gathering, delays in care, and sometimes, sacrifices in safety.

But now, thanks to cutting-edge information technology solutions that are paving the way for fully integrated EMRs, the trend among the country’s top academic medical centers is to deploy a single patient information system that stretches across the entire health system. With it, caregivers can interact with each other better than ever to promote patient safety (click here to view an example of how integrated IT protects patients), provide care more expediently and seamlessly, and even conduct clinical and translational research.

See how our IT solutions currently perform compare to the nation’s top 20 academic medical centers (AMCs).

Learn more about the key components driving URMC’s Clinical Transformation Project.