Baptist Memorial on paperless quest
Baptist Memorial Health Care in Memphis, Tenn., has allocated up to $50 million to convert six of its hospitals to a paperless system over the next four years. McKesson will help Baptist integrate inventory, billing and scheduling into one system. With the new system physicians will be able to view patient records in real time, reorder supplies as needed and verify prescriptions before they are administered. Baptist also renewed and expanded its relationship with VHA Inc., the national healthcare alliance. Through a new five-year agreement, Baptist and VHA will collaborate to help the health system reduce its supply chain costs.

Minnesota hospital to go wireless
Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., the flagship facility of the HealthPartners, will implement a wireless voice communication system from Cupertino, Calif.-based Vocera Communications. The system uses wireless badges attached to lanyards that can be worn around the neck. The badges use voice recognition technology to enable clinicians to connect and communicate with co-workers via wireless local area networks.

Navy Medical Center slated for digital makeover
The Defense Department is set to begin Sept. 18 its initiative to eliminate paper at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The center plans to replace paper with a digital system called Composite Health Care System II. It is an upgraded version of the original CHCS program used by military healthcare providers for more than a decade. The Navy maintains more than 500 treatment facilities, and it eventually plans to connect all sites to make patient records readily available worldwide.

Self-service saves time for hospital and patients
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, a 671-bed regional teaching hospital in Newark, N.J., is speeding its check-in process in several languages. The hospital recently implemented MediKiosk technology developed by Maitland, Fla.-based Galvanon. The hospital uses the self-service kiosks to check in patients, gather necessary forms and signatures and collect co-payments and outstanding balances.  The hospital expects to reduce check-in time by 25 percent for first-time patients, and by 75 percent for subsequent visits.