Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, founded in 1745, is the world's oldest continuously operating maternity hospital. It was the site of the first C-section in Ireland, performed in 1889. And until this past week, its workflows were entirely paper-based.
But a recent Cerner rollout at the Rotunda has brought it into the 21st Century, making it the first maternity hospital in Dublin with an electronic health record.
Ireland's Health Information and Quality Authority, which is charged with implementing EHRs across the Republic, has recognized that Ireland lags among developed countries in its use of health information technology.
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With the implementation of the Maternal & Newborn Clinical Management System, at the Rotunda and 18 other maternity units across the country over the next two years, Ireland will continue its move away from paper-based records to EHRs, enabling the sharing of digital patient data among care providers.
Cerner officials say the implementation of MN-CMS will be the first instance of any EHR system on a shared record basis in the Irish healthcare system.
Rotunda is the third hospital in the country, after Cork University Maternity Hospital and University Hospital Kerry, to implement Cerner's MN-CMS technology, and is "the first stand-alone hospital to go completely electronic in terms of its maternity healthcare records, which has the potential to offer great efficiencies for patients and healthcare providers," said Fergal Malone, MD, Master of the Rotunda Hospital, in a statement.
"This successful launch is a result of the collaboration, dedication and teamwork of many staff within the hospital, the HSE, Cerner and maternity services nationally," he said.
"This is a significant investment in modernizing the service through the deployment of technology which directly improves patient care," added Jane Carolan, interim CIO of Ireland's Health Service Executive. "The go-live is another step in the journey for the Rotunda Hospital, a hospital with a fantastic history and exciting future – welcome to the digital world.
Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com