By Lori EhdeImagine a time when doctors can retrieve patients’ medical histories with a touch of a button.Also imagine that same button providing patients’ history with other doctors, in addition to any medication they’ve been on or are currently on.That time has arrived in Luverne, and it’s called docZ, an electronic clinical information system."It is a phenomenal system," said Dr. Richard Morgan, Luverne."For one thing, there’s so much better access to information, from any location."DocZ will replace paper patient charts with electronic medical histories stored in secure computer files.Instead of searching papers in a manila file for things like allergies, previous treatments and surgeries, doctors will have instant information at their fingertips.Morgan said it’s most helpful for patients with complex medical histories who see more than one doctor in the Sioux Valley Health System.For example, if a doctor refers a patient to a specialist in Sioux Falls, the patient would previously have charts in both Luverne and in Sioux Falls, not readily accessible to each other.With docZ, all physicians involved can see which treatments and medications have already been prescribed."So there’s a real advantage to the patient in the sense that treatments aren’t duplicated or omitted," Morgan said.In addition to preventing human errors, the system improves convenience. "Prescriptions will be automatically faxed to the patient’s selected pharmacy," he said."It will be there before the patient even gets there. … Plus, it takes the mystery of doctor’s handwriting out of the mix."From the doctor’s perspective, it saves paperwork time, particularly in treating common ailments.For example, if a doctor is seeing a patient for pneumonia, docZ will automatically bring up a suggested standard for treatment that the doctor can tailor to the patient."It saves us from rewriting things over and over again," Morgan said. "Eventually there will be no more paper. … The paper charts will always be here, especially for our older patients. But the newborn that comes in will have no paper chart (at the clinic)."Luverne is first to use docZ systemDocZ technology is already in use in other parts of the country.But it’s brand new to Sioux Valley, which will end up investing nearly $50 million across the entire Sioux Valley Health System for its implementation.Rather than implement the technology system-wide, Sioux Valley is introducing it first in Luverne, where the new building and technical capacity make for solid testing ground."We are truly entering exciting times," Morgan said. "We are proud to be the first healthcare provider in the region to offer this level of technology."In Luverne there are 30,000 patient medical charts, and about 4,000 of those are considered complex histories — meaning patients have multiple doctors and overlapping treatments.Already, more than 3,000 of those 4,000 charts are archived into docZ.Most other patient information will begin going online as those patients are seen by their doctors. Once Luverne is comfortably using docZ, Sioux Valley will use what it learned here to introduce the technology to its other hospitals.Eventually, the entire Sioux Valley Health System will be on docZ, which has been referred to as the "Microsoft of medical information."Another goal is for patients to be able to access portions of their own charts online from their home computers. With a patient I.D. code, they can log into the system.It might be particularly helpful for parents who frequently need their children’s immunization histories.The docZ technology was named for Dr. Arne Zetlitz, one of the original founders of Sioux Valley Hospital and one of its first surgeons.Months of training and growing pains"It will take a lot of growing pains to get used to," Morgan said. "It’s painful. We’re not used to doing a lot of computer stuff."On Monday last week, the clinic did a practice walk-through with pretend patients. "It went extremely well," Morgan said.Tuesday, March 7, is the goal for full implementation. That’s the day it will actually be used with patients seen that day.The hospital went online March 1, but only partial information, such as nurses’ charting and orders, will be electronic at first, according to Becky Uilk, director of Health Information Management."Hospital patient charges will still be in paper form," she said.Uilk added that Sioux Valley staff — everyone from medical personnel to office employees — have been dedicated to learning docZ."There has been a lot of training, and a few hospital staff weren’t used to using computers in their usual duties," Uilk said. "Many have had 20 hours or more in training, and they need to be commended."Sioux Valley Luverne Medical Center employs a dozen full- and part-time transcriptionists.Those employees will still be needed for transcription work, but they’ll also be trained for work in other areas.Secure informationMorgan said a common concern among patients is that their medical data is in cyberspace and their privacy could be violated."People might think, ‘Gosh, anybody can get into my chart,’ but there are methods to know who has been in your chart and for how long," Morgan said. "There are very strict confidentiality rules in place. We all need passwords to get into the charts, so the system keeps an electronic record of who’s been in the chart, and if someone’s been in there who shouldn’t be, they could be dismissed."The electronic files ensure more privacy than the paper ones do, he said."The way it is now, you could walk into the office and look at any patient chart," Morgan said. "In many ways it’s a better system."The company that developed docZ is EPIC, Madison, Wis., and Morgan said it is a reputable electronic clinical information system."There are 55 million patients already on it," Morgan said. "It is the premier company for electronic medical records. The company’s been around for a long time."