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Increasing Treatment Parameters
When Peter Rosemark joined Torrance Memorial Medical Center (TMMC)
as its radiation physicist, he was pleased that they had already
implemented IMPAC’s radiation oncology system. “If
they hadn’t, I’d be urging them to do so,” said Rosemark, a user
of IMPAC systems since 1995. “IMPAC provides a large amount of
documentation of the treatment actually delivered and
automatically records it into electronic medical records (EMRs).
Before IMPAC, we could write into patient charts only a subset
of the parameters that IMPAC can record, and these were
dependent on the memory of the radiation therapist.” In
Rosemark’s opinion, IMPAC enables better management of patients
by increasing the likelihood that patients receive correct
treatment.
Streamlining the Clinical Process
When Rosemark started out in radiation oncology 30 years
ago, he recalled that at the clinic/hospital where he then
worked the chief radiation therapist spent a large part of every
day copying in pencil the patient treatment schedules from one
day to the next as scheduling kept changing to accommodate many
variables, including delayed returns of lab and scan results and
shifts in physician schedules. Now, thanks to IMPAC’s scheduling
software, changes in patient visits are automatically entered
into the system. This has streamlined the clinical process,
avoiding premature follow-up visits; and, by sparing radiation
therapists a dispiriting, tedious task, IMPAC frees up more of
their time for treating patients, thereby reducing staffing
costs. According to Rosemark, “In radiation oncology, we just
can’t do without IMPAC.”
Proceeding Towards Paperless
TMMC already reaps many benefits from using IMPAC for greater
efficiencies and is working toward goal of achieving a
completely paperless operation. To do so requires that IMPAC
interface with other hospital computer systems. Rosemark
explained that he is particularly eager for TMMC to implement
IMPAC’s laboratory interface, which automatically enters lab
results into patients’ EMRs. “Adding IMPAC’s lab module would
enable us to bypass written lab reports. We’d use less paper,
have all relevant information in a single chart that would be
immediately available to everyone,” said Rosemark. “We haven’t
yet given up the paper chart; the day we do, I’ll be
celebrating.” |
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Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Torrance, Calif.
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