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By Lauren Mylo
Herald Staff Writer
Ten or 20 years from now,
hospital employees may be
wondering what this thing
called paper is.
Maybe they already do.
The eRecord system that’s
been in place in UPMC Hori-
zon for a few years now has
become part of the norm
with any hospitals in the net-
work able to check in on pa-
tients via the computer and a
doctor or nurse able to see
all previous care the patient
has received.
“The $1.3 billion UPMC
has spent on project has
been most important to im-
prove patient care and make
that care safe,” said Dr.
Thomas Pineo, a physician
champion for eRecord and
hospitalist at UPMC Horizon.
The eRecord system elimi-
nates duplicate tests, makes
the information more acces-
sible and eliminates errors.
“I wouldn’t say it’s been a
lot quicker, but it’s made us
smarter,” Pineo said.
Eileen Skalski, director of
clinical operational informat-
ics, said one of the best tech-
nological advances is provid-
ing barcodes on a patient’s
wristband which links with
the computer. With one
scan, all of a patient’s infor-
mation is available.
“We’re able to close that
loophole for patient safety,”
she said.
“Another beauty of eRe-
cord is we do have a big sys-
tem. Everything can be seen
by other hospitals.”
But security is assured,
she said. Every time a pa-
tient’s file is opened on the
computer, the computer
tracks who opened it and
how long they were in the
file.
“A common misconcep-
tion of electronic health
records is confidentiality is
lessened,” Pineo said. “But
with paper, you really have
no idea who’s opening a
record. With the electronic
world, there’s security at
every step. It’s nice for pa-
tients to have that kind of
confidence.”
Ms. Skalski noted if she
has a patient’s file open in
front of her, she can see
what someone else may be
entering at the same time, so
everyone always has the
most up to date information.
There’s also a program in
place, clinical decision sup-
port, that serves as a re-
minder for doctors and nurs-
es. If a medicine is
prescribed for a patient with
allergies, the system lets you
know.
“It’s better than we could
ever get with paper,” Pineo
said.
Wilson floats
idea as she takes
helm at SRHS
By Michael Roknick
Herald Business Editor
Hired by Sharon Regional
Health System as its new
chief executive officer five
months ago, it didn’t take
Linde Wilson long to rock
the house.
A top challenge she saw
was that the non-profit
healthcare provider has out-
standing doctors – but an
older hospital. The solution?
“I think we definitely need
to build a hospital in the next
five to seven years,’’ Wilson
said in an interview.
When she first told the
hospital board their reaction
was – at first – astonishment.
Such an idea was never
brought up in the hiring
process and wasn’t on their
lips in long range plans.
The hospital has been at
the same Sharon location
since 1896. Building a new
hospital from the ground up
would be the boldest move
in its history. The most re-
cent major addition for the
243-bed hospital was its west
wing, completed in the early
’80s. The cost of creating a
brand spanking new building
will likely have a sticker
price in the nine-figure range
– as in $100 million and up.
At first board members
thought the idea was a lark.
“They kind of laughed and
said, ‘Good luck,’ ” she re-
called.
But after working on them
over time Wilson said they
began to warm up to idea
and have adopted the con-
cept. And, she emphasized,
at this point that’s all it is.
There’s no architectural
drawings. No sites chosen.
No financing in place. About
the only thing certain for cre-
ating that new hospital is lots
of planning ahead with a
very loose timetable.
In the meantime, there’s
other work afoot for Wilson
at Sharon Regional.
“It would be reckless to
start something new without
first creating a more efficient
system,’’ she said.
Settling in at her office
which still has undecorated
walls, arriving in Sharon was-
n’t in her playbook for career
moves. When an inquiry
came about her services
came from Sharon Regional
she was juggling two other
offers.
“This wasn’t even on my
radar screen,’’ Wilson said.
Prior to her Sharon ap-
pointment, her most recent
post was chief operating offi-
cer and interim CEO at Aria
Health in Philadelphia, a
three-hospital, 477-bed sys-
tem. Before that she was
vice president of operations
at Catholic Health Initiatives,
the fifth-largest health sys-
tem in the U.S. and chief ad-
ministrative officer at The
Children’s Hospital in Den-
ver along with other execu-
tive positions at Premier in
Charlotte, N.C.
It was only after meeting
with Sharon Regional board
members that she was sold
on the local job.
“It’s very rare to have a
board that works together
and that’s united,’’ Wilson
said. “It felt good from an or-
ganizational standpoint.’’
One of her first moves
here, which she’s still work-
ing on, is creating a more ef-
ficient system in treating pa-
tients as they are handed off
from one department to an-
other.
“The quality is here, it’s
the work process that needs
worked out,’’ she said.
Other items on her agen-
da are to build on the ortho-
pedic, bariatric and psychi-
atric
programs
and
promoting the hospital to the
greater community.
“The cardiologists here
are better than the ones I
dealt with in Philadelphia,’’
Wilson said.
Patients can be drawn into
the system regionally not
only by selling Sharon Re-
gional’s quality of service,
but the delivery speed. In
August she added the Physi-
cianFirst program at the hos-
pital’s emergency room
whereby patients get to see a
doctor at the beginning of
the process to get a rapid as-
sessment and then get the
needed tests and treatments.
“Somebody can drive here
from Youngstown, see one of
our physicians, and get
home faster than if then
went to St. Elizabeth’s,’’ Wil-
son said.
She also wants to reach
out to other healthcare
providers in the area. In
looking at how Western
Pennsylvania hospitals deal
with each other – that’s not
going to be easy.
“They don’t feel a pres-
sure here to collaborate.
They’re off in their own little
hospitals,’’ she said.
While quality of care is
the top priority for Wilson,
she said keeping Sharon Re-
gional’s employees happy fol-
lows a close second.
But she recognized there
are other factors when it
comes to care.
“Kindness is an important
part of the healing process,’’
she said.
Outlook
Sunday,
February 1
Sharon, Pennsyl
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DUCATION
INSI
ADVER
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A.C.L.D. .............
All Secure...........
Boyd’s Lawn and
Brentford House .
Buhl Mansion/Ta
Community Coun
Center ...........
Custom Stone an
DES Construction
Donna’s Diner ...
Downtown Coffee
The Engraving Pl
Grimm’s Inc. .......
Grove City Medic
Hermitage Agway
Hilltop Pizza .......
Howard Hanna ...
Hubbard Uptown
The Inner Office .
Kitchen and Bath
The Learning Dog
Luke’s RC Plane
L’uva Bella .........
Medical professio
Mercer Co. Build
Mercer County C
Moonhawk Herba
Muscarella’s Vita
Center ...........
Penn State-Shen
Pine Lakes Golf
Preschool directo
Primary Health N
Realtor directory .
Ryan and Sons P
RW Petruso Hear
and Audiology
St. Paul’s ...........
Scott’s Greenhou
and Garden C
Sharon Regional
Health System
Shenango on the
Shenango Valley
Catholic Scho
Sisters of the He
Stevenson Inn
and Restaura
Susi Builders Su
T-K Auto Body .....
Thiel College .......
Tri City Collision .
UPMC Horizon ...
Vein Center of
Northeast Ohi
Viking and White
Sewing Center
Walberg Family P
Warren Glass an
Windsor House ...
Youngstown Stat
ABOUT O
This year’s th
Go,” looks at how
es and organizatio
needs of logistics,
the movement of
services.
Along with sta
Herald invited bus
tries and organi
readers about
through stories an
A small label
“The Outlook” acc
report from a loc
organization.
Saturd
SHARON
Jason Kapusta/Herald
“I think we definitely need to build a hospital in the next five to seven years,”
says Linde Wilson, Sharon Regional Health System’s new chief executive officer. The
board at first didn’t know what to think but are warming up to the idea – which re-
mains just an idea at this point.
Staff at UPMC
Horizon worth with
the hospital’s new
electronic patient
records system.
Throughout all of
its hospitals, the
parent University
of Pittsburgh Med-
ical Center has
spent $1.3 billion
on the technology.
Herald file
GREENVILLE, FARRELL
First, a
new CEO;
next, new
hospital?
UPMC makes the switch to digital records
Keeping well
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A wellness i
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City Medical C
own way m
healthy, wealth
Smalltown ro
big ambitions
Though it’s
mom and pop,
Stacey Walberg
their smalltow
into a chain of
branching out
such as medic
sales.