July 19, 2013 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch Page 59 . . Business News FROM PAGE 58 great compassion at a hard time as the friend accompanied the patient into the operating room. “While I am very proud of the entire OR staff, Carol touched my heart in an indescribable way that day,” the nominator wrote. “I was crying, and my mask was slipping down. She gently reached over and tightened it for me so I didn’t have to let go of his hand, as he was sobbing in fear. After he was asleep, tears rolled down my face, and Carol looked at me, and with a very comforting voice, she let me know she was there.” Extraordinary compassion and clinical skill, like that demonstrated by Crowder, are what the DAISY Award is intended to honor. “We are proud to be among the hospitals participating in the DAISY Award program. Nurses are heroes every day,” said PRMC Chief Nursing Officer Mary Beth D’Amico. “It’s important that our nurses know their work is highly valued.” Hospital Joins Network BERLIN – In a move designed to better serve patients across the Delaware border, Atlantic General Hospital (AGH) made history this week when it joined the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN), becoming the first acute care hospital in the nation to join a Health Information Exchange (HIE) in another state. According to AGH Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Nottingham, the step comes in response to the rising percentage of patients the hospital and its medical group serves from across the state border in Delaware. “We’re very pleased to be connected with the Delaware Health Information Network. About 20 percent of the patients we treat in our emergency department are from Delaware, and having access to health information from Delaware hospitals affords another level of care that we can now provide to our patients,” she said. Some of the patients treated by AGH come from emergency room visits made by people on vacation, while others are Delaware residents who choose to see doctors who practice at the AGH Health System. “In just the six years since the launch of DHIN, the lines that define physical borders have blurred greatly when it comes to health care,” said Dr. Jan Lee, CEO of DHIN. “In some instances, patients become comfortable with a doctor, practice or hospital and develop a loyalty. Sometimes they are referred to a practitioner or specialist across a state line. Sometimes the patient or the doctor moves across the line. However it happens, the inclusion of those records in the patient’s file – regardless of zip code – can raise the speed and efficiency in which a patient is treated, and can even save lives.” Through DHIN, AGH physicians involved in the care of Delaware residents will be able to see all of the previously generated medical results for that patient on the DHIN network, including pathology, laboratory, and radiology results dating back as far as 2007.