Why is the 25-bed critical access hospital investing so heavily in I.T. A big reason, says CEO Allen Pohren, is to build loyalty among physicians, especially 18 specialists from the Omaha area who visit the hospital in rural Iowa about once a week. “Patients don’t just come running into the hospital and jump into bed,” Pohren says. “You’ve got to have physicians to admit them.”
Pohren, who has been with the hospital nearly 37 years, remembers the day when he acquired the facility’s first computer to help with payroll and receivables. Today, the hospital has a nine-person I.T. staff headed by CIO Ron Kloewer.
Here’s just one example of how far the rural hospital has come in its use of I.T.: One area neurologist who splits his time between Pakistan and Iowa can access data on patients while he’s out of the country, thanks to the hospital’s portal. “I never thought I’d see the day that would happen,” Pohren confesses.
The small-town hospital CEO views I.T. as an essential tool for improving patient safety as well as staff efficiency. “If we did not have I.T., we would be doing so much stuff manually that we’d have a lot more employees around here,” he says.
To read a case study on the rural hospital, featured in the September issue of Health Data Management, click here.
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