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Technology at Work

You can walk the Wall, tour the Taj, step out in Sydney, party in Pisa, and simply relax in Rio knowing that your patient information is just a click away. Oacis Passport at MUSC. http://oacis.musc.edu:12030/Oacis2

They spill from the computer like strangers, these old words with new meanings—Oacis, Emerald, the web, Internet, and a newcomer called Passport.

Passport offers a remote, web-based pipeline to Oacis, that trove of patient information stored and ready for retrieval. With Passport, authorized health care professionals at MUSC can tap lab reports, exam notes, prescriptions, pathology reports, and doctor visits. They can access virtually everything they need to make a diagnosis, detect a trend, or respond appropriately to a patient emergency.

Passport’s deployment, as part of the MUSC Medical Center’s electronic medical records (Emerald) roll-out, is breaking speed records for deployment and learning curves. But once the cyber-techies give the go-ahead (in about a month or two), Passport promises to break speed records for deployment and learning curves.

How so?

“It operates on the Internet and most people already know what the web is like. That familiarity means less training,” said Emerald promoter and technology enthusiast Larry Afrin, M.D., also a Hollings Cancer Center oncologist with patients of his own.

Afrin sees Passport as much more than a convenience for doctors and other health professionals authorized to use the Passport system. He sees it as a way to improve health care, cut costs, and save lives.

“Web access is available everywhere in the medical center,” Afrin said. “Virtually everyone involved in clinical work here uses the web, and most can access the MUSC server from off campus.

“Since late December when Passport roll-out began, hundreds of people have used it already. And now it’s ready for use by anybody who needs it. To roll out a new part of Emerald and have it fully operational in the hands of thousands of users in six months is a remarkable achievement.”

Mobility is the most obvious benefit Passport offers. Afrin says that any computer—including Macintosh—equipped with a Netscape browser and a direct connection to the MUSC server (either hard-wired or by a dial-up PPP account with the university) can be used.

But Afrin is quick to note, “This is not the wild and woolly Internet.” Patient files are secure and only available to the people authorized to use them within the confines of the MUSC network.

Got any questions?

How can I access Passport?

The actual computer you use doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t have to be a ClinLAN computer either. All you need is a web browser and a direct connection to the MUSC network, either through a direct (“Ethernet”) connection in your office or by dial-up connection to the MUSC PPP server.

Passport has been tested with Netscape Navigator and Communicator; for security reasons, other browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, will not work. The connection to the MUSC network is required for security; you will not be able to access Passport through any other Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as America On-Line, Charleston.Net, A World of Difference, etc.

Once you have the basics in place -- you are connected to the MUSC network, your browser is fired up, and you can see pages on the web—all you have to do to get to Passport is tell your browser to go to this address: http://oacis.musc.edu:12030/Oacis2. Once you’re there the first time, you can bookmark it so you don’t have to type in that long address ever again.

Passport uses the same Oacis user ID and password you may already have. If you need a user ID and password, you may request one through the CCIT Help Desk at 792-9700.

Passport works very similarly to the Oacis Clinical Display. Changes made to your roster/s in one will be reflected in the other. If you need additional instructions for using Passport, and for some tips to help you use Passport more efficiently, check out this address: http://www.musc.edu/ccit/passport

What if I can’t get into Passport?

If your computer can’t access Passport, it could be a very simple problem to correct, or it might be very difficult.

Unfortunately, CCIT does not have the staff and resources available to assist users with problems getting into Passport from non-ClinLAN computers. If you are having trouble getting into Passport from your home computer, or perhaps from an office computer that’s not on ClinLAN, you might want to seek help from a computer-knowledgeable friend, or perhaps a departmental information technology coordinator.

CCIT is looking into the possibility of setting up an occasional “walk-in clinic” for people having trouble accessing Passport; the tentative plan is that you could bring in your computer and have a CCIT technician identify and correct the problem(s) while you wait. If this clinic can be set up, CCIT will distribute the announcement widely.

Your 'Passport' to MUSC

Routine

Carolina Family Care and UMA network physicians who don’t have the Oacis Clinical Display available in their offices will be able to dial in from their office computers to the MUSC server to access and maintain their own rosters. New information on their patients will be in darker print, critical values like low potassium levels etc. will be highlighted in red, and a separate column on the screen will show if a patient has been admitted to the hospital.

“This may stimulate physicians into a new habit of logging on just to check if anything unexpected or new has developed with their patients,” Afrin said. “For example, the “location” column in the roster is blank for an outpatient, but shows the bed number for an inpatient. Simply logging on will show you on your roster who has been admitted to the hospital, and one or two more clicks will tell you why.

Semi-emergency

A physician, out of town for a conference, perhaps, is contacted about a patient requiring urgent attention. Thanks to Passport, important clinical information will be right there on the laptop from Oacis at MUSC.

On-call Physician

Attendings and fellows on call can take calls from home. Afrin said that on-call physicians are paged all the time at home with calls from outpatients. The Passport connection to Oacis allows the on-call doctor to make informed and more timely decisions.