Electronic Medical Records
Each one of the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council Primary Care Providers has taken on the challenge of selecting a vendor of Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management Systems and obtaining grant funding to implement their selections. In addition, both hospital systems are adopting systems of their own.Below is information from each of the providers about their selection.
J. C. Lewis Primary Health Care Center - HealthPort
J. C. Lewis Primary Health Care Center, Inc. exists to provide affordable health care for all. The facility is a federally qualified health center and provides integrated primary and behavioral health care, dental care, respite care and a host of supportive services. In an effort to provide better documentation of patient care and ease of federal reporting, the administration embarked on a search for an EMR vendor that encompassed more than half a dozen demonstrations and a site visit to Albany, GA. Utilizing capital fund raising dollars, the facility purchased and implemented the HealthPort EMR and Practice Management components in 2008 and is currently at 100% adoption.
The HealthPort EMR system is currently being used at the main facility, the HIV specialty clinic (Phoenix House) and three mobile clinics. The system is currently being used to:
*Document medical history, problem lists, allergies, medication list and all medical encounters.
*Send encounter billing information to the Practice Management component
*Send and receive laboratory information via an interface with Quest Diagnostics
*Fax prescriptions, referrals and medical records from within the system
J. C. Lewis Primary Health Care Center is a Pilot Partner in ChathamHealthLink, Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council's Health Information Exchange.
St. Mary's Health Center and Community Health Mission - GE Centricity
St. Mary's Health Center and Community Health Mission decided to go electronic because it was a requirement of the HRSA grant Armstrong Atlantic State University received to develop a Nurse Managed Health Center. The clinics selected Centricity provided through the Alliance of Chicago ASP (application service provider). Major reasons for selecting this vendor were meeting all major EHR functionality requirements, ability to share patient information with other health centers, cost within budget and the fact that the vendor, GE, will be around for the long term. The Alliance of Chicago had significant Community Health Center experience and helped tailor the application to the unique needs of a CHC.
Although both centers are at 100% adoption, they are still learning new ways to maximize the use of the EHR. Major benefits derived from going electronic are the ability to view major components of patient medical record in a one page summary, the availability and accuracy of the data, legibility of the medical record, avoidance of duplication of orders and the ability to participate in ChathamHealthLink.
Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care - WATCH for ANNOUNCEMENT Summer 2010
Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Center (CVCPHC) received federal stimulus funding in March of 2009 and June of 2009. These grants included Capital Improvement Funding (CIP) for a 24-month period in the amount of $835,000 to implement and IT system and do renovate a public housing primary care site in Yamacraw Village in Savannah, GA.
CVCPHC established an IT committee that includes representation from a local IT group in addition to IT staff of the Georgia Association of Primary Health Care. There have been software demonstrations provided by at least four vendors and representatives of the IT committee have scheduled to complete site visits of other primary care sites by July 2010.
Memorial University Medical Center - Mckesson
Memorial University Medical Center's (MUMC) goal is the delivery of world class, efficient, and integrated healthcare in an ambulatory environment that includes education. This will require the rollout of an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system because patients frequently require multiple physician providers in multiple venues. An integrated EMR system will significantly enhance the coordination of patient care across multiple outpatient environments as well as the inpatient environment, improve patient safety and reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care through the use of clinical decision support.
MUMC chose the inpatient software vendor, Mckesson, to provide an EMR system that is capable of this level of integration and functionality.
MUMC is a partner in the ChathamHealthLink Pilot Project, dedicating staff in-kind to the development, use and evaluation of the community Health Information Exchange on behalf of all of the CCSNPC partners.
St. Joseph's/Candler Health System - eClinicalWorks
St. Joseph's/Candler Health System (SJCHS) is a multi-hospital system in Savannah that
provides the community with multiple access points through SJ/C outreach programs such as St. Mary's Health Center and other points of service such as primary care physician offices and hospital campuses. Therefore, Electronic Medical Records will help in our continuing efforts to improve patient care and safety by providing a secure integrated electronic medical record that ensures access to accurate, easily accessible patient data and ensure standardization and consistency of data capture. Linking SJCHS to ChathamHealthLink will improve continuity of care, communications and efficiency and provide the capability to capture costs, perform outcome analysis and research.
SJCHS is in the process of implementing eClinicalWorks in our MGM (employed physician) offices. The first two sites go live in June 2010.
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