City of Hope has launched a critical effort to establish a clinical information system (CIS), a comprehensive method of tracking and managing complex patient data electronically.

“The CIS is critical to our future success; it is part of our strategic plan and vision for 2013 and is necessary for us to enhance the quality of our institution on a variety of levels,” said Virginia Opipare, executive vice president and chief operating officer of City of Hope. “An integrated and comprehensive CIS will allow us to improve the efficiency and safety of patient care processes, support the development of new drugs and therapies, and much more.”

City of Hope has purchased the needed administrative and clinical components for including software addressing clinical documentation, order entry, pharmacy, radiology, document imaging, health information management modules, patient portal, scheduling, patient access, patient financial management and research tools for data mining.

“Staff members from all parts of the organization will play significant roles in the system’s success,” said Jim Murry, City of Hope’s chief information officer, who is co-leading the initiative with Alexandra Levine, M.D., chief medical officer.

One part of the initial CIS project focuses on creating a name and identity that reflects the true scope and mission of the system. This identity will replace the CIS name and will be used for the life of the system, Murry said.