The hospitals share a system called PreManage ED, which tracks all of their ER patients. When an emergency department enters a patient’s name into the system, it gets an alert if that patient has visited other hospitals. If so, the emergency department staff can view information about the patient’s recent treatment and find out whether he or she already has a case manager somewhere else.
The system can also benefit the many patients who end up visiting multiple hospitals. If a patient already had an x-ray, CAT scan or other test at one hospital, for example, the shared database can help ensure he or she doesn’t get the same test again.
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