by Kristie Janeway Jernigan BS MHA

Created on: May 12, 2009   Last Updated: May 14, 2009

Health care has become a very modern and technologically advanced business. I have first hand knowledge of this. I work at CMC Home Health which is a division of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. The home care agency recently embarked on a tele-health program that has proven to have a lot of benefits to patients and hospital staff. More recently, a trip to visit my primary physician (a physician at CMC) left me amazed at the advanced equipment that they have started using. Mecklenburg Medical Group and other physician groups have started using laptops in the exam rooms to obtain and update patient information. This type of thing is happening to many people around the United States. The citizens of Charlotte, NC are seeing some of these sophisticated procedures of obtaining and checking medical data. These kinds of technological changes are necessary for the continued improvement and safety of health care.

Carolinas Medical Center is a major hospital system in Charlotte, NC that has begun using more advanced technology throughout their hospitals, physician's offices, home health care and nursing homes. Since I work at this hospital as a social worker I have gotten to see the benefits on the patients and the hospital system. Recently, my son received an injury and had to go to the children's ER. From this I was asked to check in by using the hand scanning technique. The hospital has begun using the innovative hand scanning technique when admitting patients because of the concerns about identity theft. This may seem like something out of the space age. However, it is actually a very secure way of keeping proper track of patients. We have all heard of instances of criminals stealing a patient's identity and causing enormous charges for medical care to a person who was never seen in that particular facility. Hand scanning makes that problem virtually impossible. So, if you go to the hospital in Charlotte, NC, you should be prepared to show your hand as identification.

The physician's offices in Charlotte are using the hand scanning technology as well but are also using laptops in the exam rooms. The medical information is typed directly into a laptop as the physician and patient talk. If medications are needed they are emailed directly to the patient's pharmacy. Patients have been taken aback by these changes. The old days of carrying written prescriptions to the pharmacy are gone. The problem of a pharmacist trying to read a doctor's writing and having the possibility of a medication error is dramatically reduced.

The Home Health and Nursing Homes owned by Carolinas Medical Center are also revolutionized by something called Tele-Health program that they offer. I have had the honor of personally witnessing this program first hand and am very excited to see patients treated successfully within its boundaries. In this program patients that have difficulty managing a chronic condition (such as heart conditions or diabetes) are monitored on a daily basis by a nurse through a computerized system. The home health nurse puts a machine in the patient's home and has the patient call in daily weights, blood pressure and blood sugar data. This program is proving to be as helpful to the health care facilities as it is to the patient.

So, the next time you go to your physician's office or local hospital. See what your health care facilities are offering the citizens of your town. Hopefully, cities everywhere will follow suit and start revolutionizing their health care programs as well.

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