Three months after Honolulu-based Maui Health System, a subsidiary of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, assumed management of three community hospitals and associated clinics from the state of Hawaii, hospital officials and physicians maintain mixed opinions regarding the success of the takeover, according to The Maui News.
The Kaiser affiliate assumed management of Wailuku-based Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula (Hawaii) Hospital and Lanai City, Hawaii-based Lanai Community Hospital July 1.
Hospital officials said one of the first improvements Kaiser made was to update the hospitals' EHR system. Under the previous EHR system, patient records would automatically be sent to their physicians. However, one physician told The Maui News the automatic transfer of patients' medical history no longer occurs under the new system, putting the burden on physicians to "put together the whole [patient-physician] encounter [into the system] from scratch," the report states.
"Not only are we not getting our bills out, but we are having to pay more staff to take longer hours in order to get documents that used to come to us automatically," Samuel Lyons, MD, a surgeon at Maui Memorial Medical Center, told The Maui News. "I don't want to subsidize [Kaiser's] transition by having to work longer or having to use things that I wouldn't ordinarily use while they kind of figure it out."
However, a spokesperson for Maui Health System told The Maui News administrators have invested "significant funds and resources" into the new EHR system.
Other physicians suggest improvements will occur over time as physicians and administrators become more accustomed to Kaiser's management.
"[I'm] not surprised or shocked or particularly disappointed that there haven't been a lot of changes yet," said Elizabeth Mannick, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Honolulu-based Hawaii Pacific Health. "I think once a year has gone by, we'll really have a very good feeling for what's working and what's not working. It's a little early, but I realize that there are frustrations."
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