4 of 4

Write now Article Tools

As I listen to the news, I am so excited that our nation is trying to move towards the Electronic medical records (EMR). I work for the Veterans Administration, and I cannot even begin to dream a world without the EMR. I will admit that initially it was bit hard because I am not very computer savvy, but now I cannot even begin to imagine my life without it. What irritates me the most these days is when I go to my doctor and my complete chart is never with him. If I see him in one clinic then my chart does not always follow me to the other clinic where I may have to see him due to time constraints. So either I have to remember what he did for me or what the plan was during the last visit, or else the visit may not be as fruitful.

I had to face similar problems with my own patients, especially if patient's chart was not available for review, or if patient's chart got lost in the transition from another clinic, another VA, or an outside hospital. Biggest problem was that writings were illegible. So many times I could not understand what the other provider wrote for the patient, what medicines and lab tests were prescribed (Rxed), and so on and on. Illegibility is known to have lead to fatal medical errors.

Besides the fact that we are saving trees and avoiding a paper trail, a few other things that I love about the EMR are:

1) All the notes, medical prescriptions, and tests are perfectly legible.

2) I can read everyone's notes and see results and providers of patient visits, dates and times of visit, and the plan of care for each problem, etc. Moreover each provider note does not have a "scribbled" signatures, it actually has a fully legible electronic signature of the provider.

3) Communication is so much better with the other providers because I can just make a addendum to their note about my follow-up evaluation and plan of care for the patient. The primary writer of the note will get that as an alert, and he/she will get updated about my follow-up by just reading the addended note. Thus it saves time spent in playing phone tags with each other trying to catch up on patient care. We still call for clarification if needed, however we do not have to call if the information in the note suffices.

4) Consultations are much easier. The paper consults do not get lost in transition to the consultants office. I can type in consult requests in the EMR as- same day, stat, or routine -depending on the urgency. Once the patient is seen, and the consultant has written his/her

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Electronic medical records: A step into the future of Healthcare?
We want to hear your view. Write now!