Texoma Medical Center in Denison, Texas, a 234-bed facility, took the prize in the large hospital category at the TEPR Hospital Challenge. Texoma is a regional healthcare provider for five counties in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma, and includes a freestanding ambulatory surgery center, and rehabilitation, as well as behavioral health hospitals.
Texoma had been not-for-profit since its founding, but was recently acquired by for-profit Universal Health Services, becoming the 24th hospital in the portfolio.
Texoma has a solid foundation to build on, with a strong heart program that performed some of the earliest heart transplants in the nation, and a solid physician group that has seen new patient volume rise by 15 percent. The hospital's IT implementations have moved steadily forward, with PACS in 2003, integrated HIS and physician portals in 2004, clinical documentation in homecare in 2005, document imaging in 2006 and ambulatory EHR and patient portals in 2007.
Texoma is facing major competition on several fronts. Located just an hour's drive from Dallas-Fort Worth, local residents often opt for procedures in the big city. And though it has a new hospital slated for completion in 2010 to meet the demands of growth. Texoma's current facility is outdated. The population boom in the area has raised another challenge. "North Texas is one of the hottest markets in hospital building," says Ty Sweeney, vice president and CIO of Texoma. "A new specialty hospital just opened right in our backyard and it's definitely impacted our outpatient surgery volume."
Ty Sweeney
Thanks to these IT innovations, Texoma has realized savings of $850,000 a year. Principal reductions were 50 percent in paper costs, 90 percent in film costs, 40 percent reduction in HIS annual maintenance and a 40 percent reduction in overtime—all due to IT.
