Watch any hospital drama on TV and you would not be blamed for thinking that doctors are bottomless wells of medical information with cures up every starched white coat sleeve. The truth is many doctors spend as much time with their nose buried in medical books as they do delivering snappy quips after surgery. But with every patient constantly connected to the Internet, the only cure for WebMD addiction and self-diagnosing hypochondriacs is a digitally connected medical staff, with cures right at their fingertips.
This week, Scrantons Moses Taylor Hospital announced a partnership with The Commonwealth Medical College that may do just that. As a teaching hospital for TCMC, Moses Taylor previously had its own medical library on-site for all physicians and a smaller library available to the general public. But as none of the 1,200 employees of Moses Taylor are schooled in the Dewey Decimal system, the hospital was ill equipped to make the transition to a more digital catalog. What they needed was a librarian.
We are a 95-percent electronic library, says Director of TCMC Medical Library Joanne Muellenbach. We were able to offer services the hospital never had access to, like e-mail library requests or the ability to search our catalog.
Since Moses Taylor is a teaching hospital, having educational material more easily accessible is not only convenient, it can save lives. And since Moses Taylor and TCMC, which welcomed its first class of students nearly a year ago, are in the same network, a combined library provides a better educational experience for students as well.
Not only is this partnership good for future medical professionals and current physicians. Since 200 of Moses Taylors titles were in their Community Health Information Library–a small library in the hospital lobby that was open to the public–these titles will continue to be available to all Lackawanna Library Card holders, so that patients can dig deeper than a Google search for the next disease on the 11 oclock news. For the hospital community and the greater Scranton area, hospital president Karen Murphy says, its a natural progression.
By combining our resources, Moses Taylor and The Commonwealth Medical College will increase efficiency to improve patient care, says Murphy. While at the same time, well enhance the quality and depth of educational resources offered to our employees and physicians and TCMC students and, actually, the whole community.
Source: Joanne Muellenbach, The Commonwealth Medical College
Writer: John Steele