Electronic Medical Records System means better patient privacy, better physician accessibility

Decatur Memorial Hospital recently celebrated its one-year anniversary of switching to an electronic filing system for patient’s medical records, making it one of the only hospitals in Illinois and only a few in the country to have successfully completed this monumental task. In addition, many DMH physicians have an electronic medical records system in their practices.

"After a year of extensive testing and training, I’m proud to say that Decatur Memorial Hospital has become one of the few hospitals in Illinois to convert to an Electronic Medical Record system," says Kenneth Smithmier, President and Chief Executive Officer, DMH Health Systems.

The conversion to a nearly paperless medical record filing system benefits the patient in three ways: first, it helps protect and preserve the integrity and privacy of patients’ medical information; second, it makes physician access to that medical information faster and easier; and third, it makes storage and retrieval more efficient.

Each person with access to the electronic medical record is given a user name and password that gives him/her authorization to access to specific areas of a patient’s medical chart. Each time medical information is accessed, a traceable record is created.

"DMH is courageous and forward-thinking to devote the resources to make the electronic medical records system possible at DMH," says Michael Wall, MD, a family physician who helped choose and implemented the electronic records system used in many physician offices. "We’re dealing with people’s lives, so accurate, timely information is critical to their health, and that means the information must be kept electronically."

Wall says keeping medical records electronically is high in efficiency, accuracy and cost savings for everyone and gives doctors easier access to patient information at the point of care, whether that is in the hospital, in the office or over the phone.

"If a patient calls at night with a problem, I can access his/her chart right then and determine the best course of treatment," says Dr. Wall.

Wall says the system has additional benefits for patients: Physicians can safeguard patients by checking electronically for drug interactions, including herbal and over-the-counter medications, look for drug recalls and search for new research or drugs that might benefits patients with specific illnesses.

"When the drug Bextra was recalled, it took our office less than 30 minutes to search 5,000 patient files to identify those taking the drug and send out a warning letter," he says. "There is no way we could have searched through paper charts that quickly to notify our patients," he says.

Convenience for patients is another module of the electronic medical record system that is being added to the physician system.

"Patients will be able to look at their own medical chart, request medication refills and appointment times, and fill out new patient or other paper work, securely online."

Nationally, the switch to a paperless medical records system is being proposed in the Senate by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN. The Senate bill would spend $125 million a year to promote local and regional health information systems to allow some 6,000 hospitals and 9,000 health care providers to better communicate and share patient histories during medical emergencies.

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