In an effort to jump-start the electronic health record process, Sen. Dick Durbin announced that the Department of Health and Human Services had awarded $360,000 in funds to the Illinois Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center located at Northern Illinois University. to speed up the implementation process, Franklin Hospital’s Director of Information Technology, David Williams, said the hospital had been working toward the goal of electronic health records for the past six years. A lack of funding to bring the system to the state coupled with the cost of hardware and software to feed information to physicians regardless of the location of their patient continues to hamper the project. Williams said as work continues to digitize electronic health records, hospital staff are working to implement additional technology. “the hospital has a number of specialists who come on site to treat patients,” he said. “We have been working to create tele-health between the patient and the provider.” Williams said cameras connected to computers enable physicians to see a patient in one room while conversing with that patient from another room. “This is very reliable and will be better for our patients,” he said. as technology advances, Williams said the field of medicine advances. “Physicians used to be taught hands-on practices in medicine,” he said. “the physician had to touch a patient to determine symptoms but that is changing. Physicians are now being taught to use a computer monitor to interact with a patient. the physician may be in the next room or many miles away but the patient receives state of the art health care.” Williams said the nursing staff is accustomed to utilizing a different way of prescribing medicine. “They now enter information onto a computer instead of a paper chart,” he said. “This guides the physician on how to treat patients. the records follow the patient, meaning more accurate testing and eliminates the duplication of services.” Williams said the use of electronic health records means a patient would not undergo the same tests in different medical settings. “without that system in place, a patient may have the same tests in more than one medical facility. I may have tests ran in Franklin Hospital, for example, but be referred to another medical facility hundreds of miles away. the same tests could be performed in the other medical setting,” he said. Williams said the duplication of services means increased cost to the insurance provider and the patient who typically pays a portion of the cost. Durbin said the funding would help achieve President Obama’s goal of adopting a nationwide health information technology infrastructure. Hospital clinic manager Mike Budnick said the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act authorized incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they use electronic health records. “HITECH’s goal is not only to adopt the use of these records but to tie payments specifically to the advancement of health care processes and outcomes,” he said. “HITECH calls on the secretary of health and human services to develop meaningful use objectives. “the meaningful use objectives range from recording patient demographics to vital signs and chart changes,” Budnick said. “the system enables physicians to monitor medications and drug interactions while protecting patient privacy.” Williams said the hospital has implemented life-saving programs including Heart STAT and Stroke STAT. “if a patient is suffering a heart attack, the hospital staff is prepared to monitor the patient and make arrangements to transport that patient to a cath lab setting,” he said. “the same is true if a patient is suffering symptoms of a stroke. “Stroke symptoms are often difficult to detect,” Williams said. “While a patient may think he or she is suffering a stroke, it may be a case of indigestion. We have a program in place to monitor the patient and prevent an unnecessary trip to a different medical facility, should the patient’s symptoms be indigestion instead of a stroke. In either case, seconds count and our team is trained to respond.” Business development manager Dennis O’Connor said the hospital is working with the Illinois Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center in Sauget. “This group is working through Northern Illinois University and covers the southern portion of the state,” he said. “the Extension Center is receiving the grant, not the hospital directly. “the funding will offset the costs of providing the service to the hospitals as they evaluate where the hospital is in the electronic health record conversion process and what is needed to reach meaningful use.”