"Electronic medical health records are extremely important for not only improving the speed of care, but also the accuracy of care," said Ivan Langrish, the health minister's press secretary. "To have all of your medical records in place (means doctors) don't have to sift through a paper chart. Everything is all directly online."
With electronic medical records, doctors are able to access patient information, such as their latest lab results, quickly and easily. Electronic medical records help doctors prevent medication errors when writing and renewing prescriptions and allow doctors to receive information from hospitals and labs faster, which means better coordination of care among health-care professionals.
"I think if you ask physicians, (they'll say) electronic medical health records certainly improves the timeliness but also the accuracy of care," said Langrish.
In 2009, roughly 3,000 doctors were using electronic records. The Ontario government is working to increase the number to 9,000 by 2012. The government hopes to have most doctors using electronic medical records by 2015, said Langrish.
As of June 30, there were 350 provincially-funded physicians under the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) that had gone live with their electronic medical records, said Heather Brown, with eHealth Ontario.
Brown couldn't provide Cornwall-specific numbers.
Jeanette Despatie, CEO of the Cornwall Community Hospital, said the hospital has recently prepared a strategic plan for information technology which includes getting the organization to an electronic health record over the next five years.
"We're not there at this point," she said.
"We have to build the infrastructure first."
Once implemented, Despatie said there will be a definite impact across the hospital community with other organizations.
"Patient communication will be much easier and quicker," she said. "We've seen, for example, that digital imaging...has had a positive impact. (Electronic medical records) are just an extension of that."
She said the changes should be good for the provision of patient care. "More and more physician offices have introduced an electronic record," she said. "I think it's a trend right across the system."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Melissa Di Costanzo
Quelle/Source: Standard Freeholder, 03.11.2010
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