Wentworth-Douglass Hospital implements One Medical Passport for automation of pre-op processes

Aug 25 2010

Medical Web Technologies today announced that Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, the largest acute care hospital in the Seacoast, has successfully taken its pre-operative process online with One Medical Passport. Since implementing One Medical Passport, Wentworth-Douglass has lowered operating costs, increased patient satisfaction, and reclaimed valuable nurse time.

“We have also eliminated the time, expense, and risks associated with manually and repetitively entering data on each form. The solution has proven to be very cost effective and efficient.”

"Since implementing One Medical Passport, day-of surgery cancellations have decreased 43 percent, reducing back-end labor costs which are directly linked to cancelled or delayed procedures," said Glenn Bacon, DO, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. "We have also eliminated the time, expense, and risks associated with manually and repetitively entering data on each form. The solution has proven to be very cost effective and efficient."

Prior to implementing One Medical Passport, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital relied on two full-time nurses to conduct pre-operative screenings. The nurses were responsible for cold calling patients to schedule surgeries and gathering vital medical information in advance of patients' procedures. Each patient was then required to come in to the hospital for verbal and physical preoperative information gathering. The process was inefficient and unreliable.

Since implementing One Medical Passport, the Endoscopy unit's annual 4,700 patients are all screened with approximately half the hours of one full-time RN, a 75 percent reduction in personnel resources. Once lengthy nurse assessment interviews now take a fraction of the time. Information is more thorough and more complete; patient satisfaction is much higher.

With One Medical Passport, patients complete their own pre-operative medical history securely via the Internet. The information is immediately available to nurses, anesthesiologists, registration staff and the patient's surgeon. In addition to a more efficient pre-op process, patients benefit from continued access to an online personal health record, which they can update whenever needed.

One Medical Passport is being used for all endoscopy patients. The hospital plans to expand its use hospital-wide by end of year.