Delta teaches for high-tech facility | Recordnet.com

Delta teaches for high-tech facility | Recordnet.com

Delta teaches for high-tech facility
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By Joe Goldeen
Record Staff Writer
August 14, 2011 12:00 AM
STOCKTON - Been to the doctor lately? Did you register using a wireless, paperless computer tablet, or something more archaic - say, a pen-and-paper form attached to a clipboard?

While advances in medical technology over the years have gotten most of the attention - and physicians have been quick to jump on board - medical office technology has been a little slower to catch on.

It's a significant change for any office to go paperless. But in a medical office, timeliness, accuracy and privacy all are of critical concern and require special training of personnel.

With demands for services growing at the county's seven acute-care hospitals - as well as two major government-sponsored health care facilities in the planning stages for the Stockton area - a local college instructor is focusing on meeting the training needs of medical-office workers of the future.

San Joaquin Delta College's Alicia Stewart, who teaches in the Department of Business and Business Information Management, just completed a six-month sabbatical with the VA Stockton Clinic researching its use of office technology, especially in the area of telehealth.

The French Camp-based Veterans Affairs clinic that provides primary and mental-health care to military veterans residing in San Joaquin County and the surrounding foothills is the first completely wireless facility in the VA's Northern California region, according to staff physician Dr. Steven Li, the VA's Central Valley medical informatics officer.

Stewart hopes to introduce new curriculum at Delta that will train medical assistants to work with the new technologies to meet the needs of the Veterans Affairs facility - which will be significantly expanding in the county over the next several years - and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which will be opening the largest health care facility in the county by the end of 2013.

"It's important for people to know that Delta works to keep its curriculum current and relevant," Stewart said. During her stint with the VA clinic, she became most fascinated with how it uses its office technology in a medical setting.

"They are doing things that we mostly take for granted, everyday things like when a veteran checks in, the front office sends an instant message to the back where the doctors are," Stewart said. "They also use video cameras for weekly meetings to communicate with peers in Palo Alto," where the regional VA is headquartered.

As a result of her research, Stewart hopes to incorporate training in video technology use in an office setting, something that is not now taught at the community college. She believes it will become increasingly critical with the rising use of telehealth that has the potential to connect patients here with medical specialists anywhere in the world.

"We knew that the VA was going to be expanding and wanted to see the technology they were using - how is it used, how critical is it to teach personnel how to use it," Stewart said.

"Students may know about instant messaging, but it's really important for students to understand instant messaging in a business setting and the use of webcams used to communicate in a business setting."

To her surprise, Stewart said, many of her college-age students, while comfortable with computers, were unfamiliar with the use of webcams in any setting. The college has purchased 40 for its training program.

Li, who worked closely with Stewart during her sabbatical, was happy to accommodate the educator.

"I believe that anytime where you can train the local work force to fill local jobs, it is a benefit. I thought it was a critical gain that our city negotiated those funds for Delta College with the state prisons to ensure that our local work force was trained and able to fill those future jobs instead of continued income flight out of our communities," Li said.

"Likewise for the prison, having that same work force of tomorrow ready for any health care position will help the VA fill our future needs as we continue to expand. Tomorrow's health care worker has to be proficient in information technology as it will be the main driving force in health care delivery," he said. "The more they know how to type, navigate through electronic medical records and use technologies like telehealth, the better they will fair in being hired and fulfill their health care mission."

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/goldeenblog.