AWL FAMILY HEALTH CARE AND ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS
What is one of the newest advances in health care technology over the past decade? Well, it's the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) that is a collection of patient's medical information in a digital (electronic) form that can be viewed on a c computer and easily shared by people taking care of the patient.
The world of EMRs has become one of the new advances in cutting technology in health care for the past decade. Additionally, as part of the stimulus package passed last year by the United States, up to 27 billion dollars will be paid out by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid services over 10 years to providers that meet a series of electronic medical record use.
AWL Family Health Care Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri has been staying on the cutting edge of health care technology by using EMRs since October 2008 at their facility. Furthermore, the family nurse practitioners and staff at AWL Family Health Care Center attended an electronic medical records conference in Austin, Texas from July 27 through July 24, 2010 that provided updates for new and old users alike.
The nurse practitioners and staff at AWL Family Health Care Center currently use EMRs and can enter patient data by use of a computer-based system to record medical orders, prescriptions and lab results to name just a few options available. In addition, AWL Family Health Care has the ability to transmit all of their prescriptions for their patients electronically to an area pharmacy. This method has been proven to decrease medication error, eliminate excessive paper, and decrease the amount of time that patient must wait for medications being filled at these pharmacies.
Eventually, all health care facilities from hospitals to clinics will be required to use EMRs as part of the new health care initiative. Knowing this, Kim Keser, APRN, FNP-BC and Dolores McDowell, APRN, FNP-BC decided that AWL Family Health Care needed to be one of the first clinics in Cape Girardeau, Missouri to begin the transition from paper to a computer based electronic medical record to increase efficiency in medical care, decrease medical errors, and increase the effectiveness of timely filled prescriptions.
By: Marie Wright, APRN, FNP-BC
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