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During his tenure at MHP, Dr. Bertka developed and chaired the physiciandesign committee and championed the successful roll-out of Siemens MedicalSolutions INVISION(R) CPOE across four of MHP's community hospitals. Just lastyear, more than 1,000 community physicians and 350 resident physicians enteredorders through the CPOE system.
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Dr. Bertka was also influential in many CPOE-related initiatives once thesystem was in place at all facilities including: the creation of a regionalprocess to develop evidence-based clinical guidelines and order sets acrossthe four MHP facilities live on CPOE, resulting in the availability of morethan 700 order sets; incorporation of complex order sets, such as pediatricweight-based dosing and chemotherapy orders, into the CPOE system; developmentof a pathway for medical students to submit orders through a test mode forattending and resident physicians to then review and incorporate into activeorders, if appropriate; design of a verbal order signature function to meet anew requirement that all verbal orders, when used, had to be signed within 48hours, resulting in 46% increase in compliance within the first six weeks ofimplementation; and implementation of several clinical support alerts,including duplicate order alerts, duplicate class alerts, pneumococcal andinfluenza vaccine reminders, CHF reminders and restraint reminders.
In addition to his involvement with MHP's CPOE plan, Dr. Bertka alsoplayed an integral role in other IT initiatives at MHP. First, he establisheda regional committee that worked to set the IT strategy and priorities for allof MHP's facilities. He also piloted several of MHP's IT programs in hisprivate office, such as portal, lab notification, picture archives andcommunication system (PACS), online signatures and online dictation editing.Dr. Bertka is also a strong advocate of the use of electronic medical records(EMR) in ambulatory settings. Presently, he is leading an initiative to makean EMR system available to small- and medium-sized physician practices innorthwest Ohio.
"It has been an honor to work so closely with Dr. Bertka over the years,and we could not be happier over his recent industry recognition," stated DonRucker, M.D., vice president and chief medical officer, Siemens MedicalSolutions. "We enjoy being able to collaborate with those who are dedicated tothe advancement and use of healthcare IT to help improve patient safety andcare, and Dr. Bertka strongly demonstrates this through everything he does. Icould not think of anyone more deserving of this award."
Dr. Bertka is co-editor and co-education director of The Core ContentReview of Family Medicine, and is a past president of the Ohio Academy ofFamily Physicians. He serves as chair of the American Academy of FamilyPhysicians' (AAFP) Commission of Membership and Member Services, and is acandidate for the AAFP Board of Directors. Dr. Bertka also currently serves asa clinical associate professor for the Department of Family Medicine at theUniversity of Toledo's College of Medicine. Dr. Bert
