Valley Baptist one of 1st in Texas to make Centricity Electronic Medical Record available to doctors

The new Centricity Electronic Medical Record is being made available to Valley physicians through the Valley Health Care Network, a Physician-Hospital Organization at Valley Baptist Health System. Valley Baptist has become one of the first health care systems in Texas to help physicians gain access to remotely-hosted electronic medical records. National and state leaders – including President George W. Bush and Governor Rick Perry – have encouraged widespread transition from paper to computerized records as a way to ensure patients receive critical medical care following catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina.

“There is a nation-wide push to improve the quality of medical care and how it is delivered through the improved use of information technology,” said Garner F. Klein, MD, Executive Director of Valley Health Care Network. “Valley Baptist Health System is committed to assisting Valley physicians in making the leap to electronic medical records.”

Since Valley Baptist hosts the computer servers remotely for participating physicians, if the doctor’s office should be flooded in a hurricane, he or she could simply set up a new computer in a temporary location. The doctor could then log back into the system and have instant access to his or her patients’ charts, electronically.

Under the Valley Baptist system, data is secured in a separate section for each medical practice. Doctors log into the system over the Internet through a secure connection, which requires the physician’s unique log-in ID and password to protect the confidentiality of patients. Physicians can access their patient’s records anywhere there is a secure Internet connection: from their office, at home or while traveling.

“Valley Baptist maintains the servers, back-ups and updates – meaning there’s one less thing for busy physicians to worry about,” Dr. Klein said.

Dr. Brian O’Donnell, Family Practice Physician in Harlingen, said the electronic medical record system is also important from the standpoint of patient safety – since it reminds the physician of the medications that the patient is already on and checks for interactions between different medications.

“The electronic medical record allows you to quality check a large group of patients,” Dr. O’Donnell said. “You can check all patients on a particular medication, if for instance, a medication is recalled.”

“You are not going to be writing prescriptions – everything is done electronically,” Dr. O’Donnell added. “It helps out with patient safety as far as medications and with medical records in general.”

Dr. O’Donnell also noted that the electronic medical record helps promote preventative care. “If a patient hasn’t had a test done in a while – for example, a colonoscopy – it reminds you that they are due for a test,” he said.

Dr. O’Donnell said the transition to electronic records is going “very smoothly” for his medical practice. “Valley Health Care Network is assisting us in our transition, and has answered our questions,” he added.

Additional benefits of the Centricity Electronic Medical Record, which Valley Baptist is making available in the Valley through an agreement with GE, include:

 Lab, radiology, and medical records documents can be sent electronically from Valley Baptist directly into the patient’s chart – meaning the patient and his or her doctor gets their test results faster, which can improve patient care.

 The physician can use the electronic system to incorporate digital photos of the patient’s problem into the patient’s chart, or to draw a diagram of the problem. Also, the system can produce a personalized chart showing a patient’s body weight over time, which can be printed out and given to the patient.

 One available option is for the doctor to dictate observations into the medical record simply by speaking into the microphone of the hand-held Tablet PC (the system has voice recognition capabilities using the “Dragon Speak” software).

 The physician can use the light-weight tablet screen to visually show the patient his or her information while they discuss a planned approach to address the patient’s condition.

 The doctor can easily refer the patient to a specialist and send pertinent chart information instantly to the specialist in electronic format.

 Patient education handouts can be easily printed from the system and handed to the patient – in English or Spanish. For example, the doctor can print out a handout which explains how a patient can follow a low-salt diet. Doctors can also upload into the system other handouts they like (or other information, such as telephone notes from conversations with the patient).

“This easy approach to documentation and coding simplifies the process for the physician, the office staff, and the patient,” said Debi Warner, Director of Physician Information Services with the Valley Health Care Network, a Physician-Hospital Organization. “It also saves the physician’s office both time and money. National studies show that physician office staffs spend 30% of their time searching for paper charts. With the electronic medical record, those charts can be pulled up instantly, with a password and the click of a button.”

Valley physicians who would like more information on the new system may contact Valley Health Care Network at (956) 389-6742 or by e-mail at debra.warner@valleybaptist.net.

Links

 For more information on the new GE Centricity Electronic Medical Record system:

GE Healthcare - Centricity

http://www.cchit.org/physicians/buy/products.htm

http://www.emr.msu.edu/Documents/chug_2005_fall/pdf/henriksen_ge_update.pdf

http://www.gehealthcare.com/usen/contact/contactus_idx.html

For information on Valley Baptist’s commitment to enhancing its own information technology system, including installation of hospital-based Centricity Electronic Medical Record systems though its new Information Management for Physician and Patient Access with Clinical Transformation (IMPPACT) initiative:

http://www.valleybaptist.net/about/news/06/CentricityClinicalTransformation.htm

For general information on the Valley Baptist Health System:

http://www.valleybaptist.net/

For an on-line demo of how the Centricity EMR and physician Practice Management software works:

GE Healthcare - Online Demo

Additional Quotes:

Dr. Garner Klein

Debi Warner