Kaiser Permanente's electronic medical system provides
fast, vital information about all patients

When every second counts for a trauma patient at the South Sacramento Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente's physicians and nurses can access its electronic medical system to provide vital information to help them make the best medical decisions - at every point of care.

"A typical trauma patient may go to surgery within minutes, and after that to the Intensive Care Unit, and then the hospital," said Michael Carl, MD, the assistant physician-in-chief for Emergency and Trauma Services at the South Sacramento Medical Center. "As the patient's care progresses, everyone can share the same comprehensive, up-to-the-minute data, which supports excellent care and enhances patient safety."

Every patient who comes into the trauma center - even those who are not members of Kaiser Permanente - will have an electronic medical record in KP HealthConnect, said Dr. Carl. For non-members, an electronic medical record will be opened so that all care can be tracked in real-time throughout their treatment. This practice is already in place in the South Sacramento Emergency Room.

Providing an electronic medical record for all patients ensures that members and non-members alike benefit from key KP HealthConnect features. Physicians and care teams have immediate access to essential patient health information, 24x7. The system also tracks the medications each patient and alerts the pharmacy of potential conflicts to help prevent medical errors.

"By supporting the needs of non-members as well as members, we are making this state-of-the-art system available to the entire community," said Dr. Carl.

KP HealthConnect will also enhance continuity of care as the patient's ongoing care progresses. For instance, some trauma patients will need inpatient physical therapy at the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center (KFRC) in Vallejo. Our South Sacramento caregivers can consult with colleagues at KFRC to ensure the best medical decisions are made.

Once a non-member's care is complete at South Sacramento, the electronic records are shared with the patient's health system. If the patient's provider has a compatible electronic medical record system, files can be transferred digitally. For outside physicians who are still on paper-based charts, records can be printed out or provided on DVD, including x-rays and other digital images.

Looking to the future, KP HealthConnect will connect our physicians more closely with emergency medical response teams, which are in the early stages of adopting systems that will enable them to file detailed patient reports electronically. This will enable Kaiser Permanente physicians to have all the information they need to provide treatment before the patient arrives. The electronic reports may include everything from the patient's vital signs to digital photos of an accident scene, which can provide important clues about the nature of the patient's injuries.