ORRVILLE, Ohio (Oct. 20, 2014) – Aultman Orrville Hospital has successfully upgraded from paper documentation to complete electronic documentation. This achievement allowed the facility to attest for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use on Aug. 27.

Meaningful Use was established by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The three stages of Meaningful Use were designed to support eligible hospitals with implementing and using electronic health records (EHRs) in a meaningful way to help improve the quality and safety of the nation’s health care system.

Aultman Orrville started the attestation period for Stage 1, year 2 on Oct. 1 and will attest for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use in October of 2015.

Aultman Orrville also launched a new patient portal in September. The confidential, secure, Web-based system allows patients 24/7 access to their health information. All inpatient and observation patients are now invited to access their lab results, radiology and pathology reports, medication lists, visit summaries and patient education through the portal.

In addition, a new ‘transition of care’ document is being provided at the time of discharge for all Aultman Orrville patients. This document can be taken to the primary care physician to improve the transition of care from hospital to community care.

“The Aultman Health Foundation has made a significant investment in Aultman Orrville Hospital to implement a state-of-the-art electronic medical record and patient portal,” said Dr. Marchelle L. Suppan, Aultman Orrville Hospital president and CEO. “We are confident that these improvements will support our ongoing mission to lead our community to improved health.”