s part of our commitment to provide our communities with the very best healthcare, La Casa Family Health Center incorporated an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system in November 2004.An EMR system will enable La Casa to integrate all patient information in one common system, which allows the providers to more effectively establish the patient’s health plan and deliver comprehensive, continuous high quality care.
La Casa’s dedication to enhancing the quality of care through new technology may prove to be the vehicle that integrates all New Mexico Community Health Centers, enabling a patient to travel anywhere in New Mexico and have his health record accessed electronically.
SEFERINO MONTAÑO
CEO
Electronic communication and exchange of patient information among the Centers, and labs, pharmacies, hospitals, and medical specialists means faster service, reduced opportunity for errors and safer transmission of protected health information.Electronic decision-making tools will assist doctors in making accurate diagnoses and in writing error-free prescriptions.
The integration of Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Oral Health Records (EOHR) enhances dental practitioner’s participation in the treatment of patients with chronic illnesses through access to the patient’s entire health record.Quality of care is enhanced by standardized documentation, automated charting, trending functions, and automated decision support systems that reduce the opportunity for errors.Additionally, the ability to access critical history and diagnosis rapidly expedite critical treatment of patients needing acute care.Electronic transfer of records among health centers will increase compliance.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EMR, ALLOWS LA CASAFAMILYHEALTHCENTER TO BENEFIT FROM INCREASED EFFICIENCIES, HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY AND COST-SAVINGS REALIZED BY TECHNOLOGY.MORE EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS MEANS MORE DEVOTED RESOURCES TO IMPROVING ACCESS AND REDUCING DISPARITITES.
Wireless Hand-held Devices—Lifebooks are light weight, touch screen laptops that provide access to all practice management and web functions.Lifebooks can be used to enter and access patient data, schedules, tasks, order prescriptions, lab work, and get results.The lifebook can access patient records from any La Casa clinic location on a secure network and is HIPAA compliant.
OmniDoc is a windows based system that automatically generates progress notes in an easy-to-use graphical interface.A document imaging system allows electronic storage of scanned clinical documents that can be added to patient medical records and viewed by physicians and staff.
Integration of health related information will enable La Casa to better measure the impact of treatment and care on health disparities such as asthma, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and depression.
