By Parmeeth M.S. AtwaL
Health IT Buzz Blog
Dottie Bringle, R.N., was on her way to Ireland when the tornado hit Joplin, MO, the town where she has worked as the Chief Operating and Chief Nursing Officer at St. John’s Mercy Hospital for 24 years. Standing in line at the Atlanta airport waiting to catch her connecting flight to Dublin, she heard the news that a storm had struck Joplin, and that it was bad. Dottie rushed back to Joplin, and when she arrived, she found that the hospital staff were up and running in a temporary facility, since the hospital building in St. Johns had been destroyed. All patient records were retrieved, however, due to the electronic health record (EHR) system the hospital had transitioned to only three weeks before the storm.
ONC talked to Dottie about St. John’s transition to EHRs and how they proved to be invaluable after the storm.
