GreenForest Community Hospital

GreenForest Community Hospital is a landmark healthcare institution serving approximately 350,000 people in the Northeast part of Salem County. It offers a full range of programs including all major medical specialties and a nationally-recognized pediatric unit with an intensive care nursery. It provides 24 hour emergency and critical care services and works with outreach programs within the GreenForest system in rehabilitative and home health services.

Hospital Specifics 

• Number of Beds: 250
• Types of Beds: Beds are distributed among general medicine, surgery, intensive care, cardiology, oncology, obstetrics, newborn and pediatrics.
• Hospital Structure: In addition to the 250 beds, the hospital performs diagnostic testing services that support inpatient care and outpatient services for nearby physicians. The hospital maintains 24 hour pharmacy services and periodic health education programs for the community.
• Size: GreenForest Community Hospital is built on a 2 story campus with an attached 4 story pavilion dedicated to surgery and oncology services.
• Population Served: The hospital serves a broad section of the population from 3 small cities in the  area. These include nearly 4000 families. Service statistics include 20,000 admissions per year, 50,000 emergency department visits and 800,000 outpatient procedures.
• Payer Mix: 34% Medicare, 22% Medicaid, 35% private insurance, 3% self-pay, 6% other
• Staffing: GreenForest Community Hospital has 800 physicians on the medical staff and is one of the largest employers in the community with 2900 employees. Approximately 45% of the employees are represented by a bargaining unit for nursing. Another 23% of the employees are represented by the service employees union.
• Technology in Use: GreenForest Community Hospital recently made the decision to move to EPIC. This decision was made as a way to meet the organization-wide goal to move to a comprehensive EMR system for the entire facility and to enhance interoperability with the rest of the GreenForest system. Transition planning is in the beginning stages and currently the medical record systems at the hospital are primarily home-grown and siloed. Prior to the current initiative, there were no cohesive efforts to migrate existing systems into an integrated electronic environment. GreenForest Community hospital currently has information systems in place for the following functions: administrative applications including a Registration-Admission, Discharge, Transfer system; patient scheduling; general financial management applications including accounts payable, budgeting, general ledger, materials and equipment, and human resources.Ancillary applications include Laboratory and Radiology applications and Order Management. An outdated pharmacy application is in place. An enterprise Master Patient Index and transcription, medical record abstracting and coding in the health information department. The order management application is used to order materials and supplies and diagnostic tests. Selected diagnostic test results and transcribed reports can be viewed on-line in selected areas of the hospital; but not in physician offices outside the hospital. Inpatient nursing and physician documentation is completed using an older legacy system that is being phased out. The Emergency Department has used T-System for the last several years, but this will also be phased out in favor of the comprehensive facility-wide EPIC system.