Earlier this year, the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library (PSRML) selected two hospital libraries as sites for implementing its Library Improvement Program. This program, based on a project that was developed in the Mississippi Delta, assists hospitals in improving the level of information services they currently provide to their health professionals. The program is implemented over an eighteen month period. The two sites were selected during the first year of our 1996-2001 contract, and an additional two or three sites will be selected during the third year of the contract. This program is one of the ways PSRML is fulfilling its contract goals to help health care institutions provide health professionals with timely, convenient access to biomedical and health care information through the Internet and other electronic resources.
Rachael Villegas, Assistant Library Manager (left) & Diane Nettles, Library Manager (right) at EMC
The Library Improvement Program focuses on bringing information technology to small hospital libraries that have no form of access to MEDLARS databases. It can also assist these hospitals in meeting the Joint Commission accreditation standard for knowledge-based information which states, "The hospital provides systems, resources, and services to meet its needs for knowledge-based information in patient care, educa-tion, re-search, and manage-ment."
East Bay Hospital in Richmond, CA and Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock were selected from a larger pool of eligible hospitals as the initial sites. They both met the minimum requirements for participation, and the administrators at each facility were very enthusiastic about improving their information services. Neither hospital was affiliated with a larger health care system.
East Bay Hospital, an 87-bed acute care facility, provided psychiatric care to adults suffering from behavioral disturbances, and had 60 medical and affiliate staff, and 150 employees. Their small library collection was housed in a spacious medical staff lounge. After an initial site inspection and survey of library services, computer equipment and software were delivered and Internet services established. The library manager, key personnel and hospital staff were trained in literature searching via Internet Grateful Med, and a Loansome Doc account was established for document delivery. Resources which address ways to optimize library services and collections were provided to the site. Unfortunately, we received notification last month that East Bay Hospital has closed. Although we didn't get the chance to accomplish all of our goals at East Bay, our efforts did raise the level of awareness of NLM and NN/LM resources on the Internet and of the accessibility of health-related information.
Emanuel Medical Center, a 149-bed acute care facility, provides general medical, surgical and obstetric care, has about 190 medical and affiliate staff, and approximately 1,000 employees. EMC also owns a 149-bed skilled nursing facility adjacent to the hospital. Its library collection, which includes 60 serial titles, is housed in a small room across from the medical staff lounge. EMC's library manager, key personnel, and hospital staff received the same training as did East Bay Hospital, but received additional training in the use of DOCLINE. EMC's serials holdings have been entered into the SERHOLD database, and it has subsequently become a full participant in DOCLINE. Prior to its participation in this program Emanuel did not have Internet access, and relied on nearby Memorial Hospitals Association's Health Science Library for most of its document delivery needs. The response of physicians and other staff members to our training has been very enthusiastic. The use of Internet Grateful Med has been encouraged through hospitalwide inservice classes.
As mentioned earlier, we would like to expand this program to include two or three more sites. Potential Library Improvement sites must meet the following minimum requirements to be eligible for the program:
We are excited about this new opportunity to expand library services in our region and to help more libraries become a vital part of the National Information Infrastructure. Please let us know if your facility or another facility that you are aware of would like to be considered for this program. If you have further questions about the Library Improvement Program, we would welcome your call.