Adventist Health Membership Committee
Portland, Oregon
The responsibility of the Membership Committee is to hear reports on Finances, Quality, and Mission success of the Adventist hospitals and other related ministries on the West coast. This year the meeting was held at Adventist Medical Center in Portland so that members of the committee could tour the new Pavilion addition and parking facility. The Pavilion houses all cardiac care functions and the emergency department. The Membership Committee is also the body who elects the members of the Adventist Health Board of Directors.
The report from Project IntelliCare was particularly interesting. This project is computerizing all functions of the Health System to a paperless electronic system. These amazing statistics were reported even though the project has not been totally implemented yet: Over 10 terabytes of patient information is available today. Over 3,600 physicians and employees are using the system right now. Over 7,000 individuals will use the system each day. Over 100,000 patient charts will be accessed each day. Over 1.6 million unique transactions will be generated each day. And the user’s average transaction response time=0.98 seconds.
The ingredients of Quality are S.T.E.E.P. Safe, Timely, Effective, Efficient, and Patient-Centered. The hospital system carefully monitors quality and safety measures to assure patients of superior outcomes when they are treated at Adventist Health facilities.
Also was shown a recently produced DVD which encourages physicians and other health care givers to be intentional about considering the spiritual aspects of healing. It very effectively communicates how important the spiritual aspect is in patients recovery which, of course, is very much in line with the Adventist concepts of whole person care. Allison Field a physician at Walla Walla General Hospital gave an in- person testimony of how she is able to bless patients through her concern for their spiritual faith journey.