Banner Health has embarked upon a systemwide initiative called Care Transformation that unites best practices in clinical care with leading-edge clinical computer systems to provide better, safer care to patients. As part of the initiative, Banner Health has scrutinized all of its processes – from how surgeries are scheduled to how patient records are managed – to find the optimum way to provide patient care.

One specific component of Care Transformation is to place patient information at caregivers’ fingertips by using an integrated electronic medical record that will contain lab results, doctors’ and nurses’ notes and charting and medical images. Both Banner Estrella Medical Center and Banner Gateway Medical Center opened as fully electronic hospitals. Our goal is to implement the foundation of our electronic medical record in all Banner Health facilities by the end of 2008.

Early results from a recent benefits study completed by the Cerner Corporation and Intel at Banner Estrella Medical Center prove that Care Transformation works. Banner Estrella was the first hospital to implement Banner's franchise model for Care Transformation when it opened in January 2005. Findings from the study are positive and identified benefits in patient safety, improved lab turnaround times, reduced patient wait times in the Emergency department, improved patient satisfaction and staff retention.

Banner Health is implementing a number of processes under the overarching umbrella of Care Transformation that use improvements in clinical care practices and technology to provide better, safer care to patients. One such system is IPROB, the Intelligent Patient Record for Obstetrics, which improves the safety of the labor and delivery process for the more than 30,000 babies born in our hospitals.