Elaine Collins

"For Tuality patients, the most obvious improvement will be the need to provide medical history information just once, whether they are seeing a family doctor, being admitted to the hospital, or are receiving emergency-room care," said Elaine Collins, RN, who serves as director of Tuality's Clinical Information System department."Multiple healthcare providers will be able to access the patients' current health information for treatment from multiple locations at the same time."

She said that doctors, nurses and other authorized staff will have secure access to the resulting data at physician offices and hospital departments such as the laboratory, pharmacy, diagnostic imaging, patient accounting, and others.
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Tuality is working with Cerner Corporation, based in Kansas City, Mo., in creating an "efficient and effective system that is appropriate for the size and resources of our organization," said Collins.Staff throughout Tuality are currently testing the system to be implemented in June 2008, including running through "virtual" patient scenarios that represent actual cases.

Implementing a complete electronic medical record system is a career highpoint for Collins.She came to Tuality in 2005 after more than 20 years of experience and training in nursing and management.In the early 1990s, she took a turn for the "tech," going back to college to earn a degree in computer science, and learning the ins and outs of medical computer systems.

"I always liked electronics, computers and math," she said of her decision to change course."But early in my career, those just weren't the things that women pursued."

Her degree led her to the Greenville Shriners Hospital in South Carolina and then Portland Shriners Hospital, where she served as a project manager/clinical analyst.She was often a "go-to" person, helping to train others and problem-solve their computer issues.

Her experience has served her well at Tuality as she oversees the extensive training of staff at all levels and in multiple departments.This includes an advisory committee of Tuality medical staff members who are learning software functions and capabilities, and are helping to educate other doctors on how the system will work for them.

"We are getting great staff input and involvement in the project every step of the way," said Collins.