While it never hurts to try to save a tree or to eliminate unnecessary steps, health care organizations that have implemented an electronic medical record say the benefits are far more than environmental or efficiency. Hospitals across the country that have already made the jump to an EMR say the ultimate benefit is real time access to information and improved patient safety.

“The biggest benefit is immediate access to the record any place, any time,” said Dr. Bill Davis, chief medical information officer for Winona Health in Winona, Minnesota. “I have patients calling me at home and I look at their record; it’s right there. It’s hard to beat that.”

The 99-bed Winona Health hospital is not the only system to report benefits from EMR, following are more examples:

Borgess Medical Center, Kalamazoo, MI
Beds: 424

• ICU length of stay decreased by 1,780 days for a financial impact exceeding $5.6 million.
• ICU mortality rate fell by 47 percent.
• Ventilator days decreased by 2,410 for $3.6 million in savings.

New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY
Beds: 570

• Pharmacy omission errors dropped more than 50 percent.
• Transcription and legibility errors were eliminated.
• Overall drop of 22 percent in medication errors.

NCH Healthcare, Naples, FL - Beds: 539

• Reduced pressure ulcers from 12.8 percent of admissions to 1.7 percent.
• Compliance with skin breakdown assessments rose from 50 percent to 100 percent.
• Compliance for falls risk assessments improved from 57 percent to 100 percent.

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Beds: 260

• Harmful adverse drug events fell 75 percent, from 0.04 per 1,000 doses dispensed to 0.01.
• Eliminated adverse drug events traced to transcription errors.

Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA - Beds: 250

• Reduced medication delivery time by more than 70 percent.
• Also, 97 percent of all acute care medications delivered to the bedside within 90 minutes.

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA - Beds: 318

• Entry of allergy data improved by 33 percent.
• Entry of weight data improved 15 percent.
• Decreased medication errors causing harm by 42 percent

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, Tallahassee, FL Beds: 770

• All eligible patients receive antibiotics within 0 to 60 minutes, 80 percent within 30 to 60 minutes.

Banner Estrella Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ - Beds: 172

• Orthopedics department improved compliance with antibiotic use from less than 50 percent to 100 percent.