UM Family Medicine Clinic's Med Records Going on the WWW
But electronic medical records slow to catch on in the rest of South Florida
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TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - JANUARY 27: Palestinian mother Houda Siam looks on as an Israeli doctor examins her son Abdullah soon after their arrival at the Wolfson Medical Center January 27, 2009 in Tel Aviv. The 6-year-old Palestinian boy, whose powerful relative Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam was assassinated by Israel during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, is the first child from Gaza to cross the border to the Israeli hospital for life-saving heart surgery since the war ended on January 18. Siam was brought over by the Christian charity Shevet Achim to repair the hole in his heart through Save a Child's Heart (SACH), an Israeli-based international humanitarian project whose mission is to improve the quality of paediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Abdullah Siam;Houda Siam
Getting doctors' offices to go paperless is easier said than done.
Medical records at the University of Miami's Family Medicine Clinic officially became electronic this week, but the transition is labor and time intensive.
"Some people have charts that are four inches thick," said Department Chair Dr. Robert Schwartz "It's going to take us time to weed out the things that are important, that need to be scanned into our Electronic Medical Records".
For patients it will ultimately mean being able to access all your own records from your own computer.
"It's going to improve quality of care, it's going to avoid drug interactions, I won't have to call a dozen times to get my prescriptions refilled" said Dr. Schwartz.
But it will take some getting used to, as it changes the practice of medicine.
Patient Angela Williams was told how a personal code will allow her to see her information at MyUHealthChart.com, and she said she's happy about the change.
"You don't have to worry about your files and things being around the office and everything is inside the computer," she said. "I think it's very confidential and secure."
Now it's a matter of getting more doctors to buy into it. The South Florida Regional Extension Center is in place to help doctors meet certain requirements so they can qualify for stimulus funds.
"It just received $8.5 million of federal support to help primary care doctors - general internists, family doctors, ob/gyns and pediatricians to adopt Electronic Medical Records" said Dr. Schwartz, who also heads the Extension Center's Steering Committee.
Those fund will be available beginning in January. Right now it's estimated that only 6 to 10 percent of doctors' offices in South Florida have EMR compared to about 30 percent nationwide.
Posted Thursday, Jul 15, 2010 - 6:54 AM EST
