Electronic Files Replace Paper Records
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| Dr. Don McKnight, a urologist at Jackson Urological Associates, enters patient information into his laptop computer. Medical electronic records, he says, are much better than the inefficient way of keeping paper records. |
“Every physician’s office in the world has these patient files that are full of paper,” says Dr. Don McKnight at Jackson Urological Associates. “They spend high amounts of time and money maintaining these stacks of paper, making sure they are accurate, up to date, accessible and filed correctly.”
He has found a better way to maintain his patient files, he says, by switching to electronic records. For the last year, he has been putting his patients’ medical records into a computer database. In April, he began using electronic medical records full time.
Instead of writing in a patient’s chart or dictating instructions later (that will then be transcribed, typed and inserted into a patient’s chart), Dr. McKnight carries a wireless laptop computer with him as he sees patients. He uses the touch screen to enter the new information into the laptop, which puts it into the clinic’s electronic database.
“Creating an electronic system is an opportunity to make the whole thing run better,” says Dr. McKnight, a board-certified urologist who has been practicing medicine in Jackson for 13 years. “I don’t miss the inaccuracies and inefficiencies of paper.”
Keeping a good record of each patient’s medical history is important, he says. “Historically, the patient’s record tracks what you have diagnosed and done with a patient over time, giving you an orderly progression of how the patient was treated.”
At first, written notes were put in patient files. Then doctors dictated notes for someone else to type and put in the patient’s file. But everything, Dr. McKnights adds, has been kept on paper. Now, more clinics, including several in the West Tennessee Physicians’ Alliance, are starting to use electronic records.
A totally electronic system can eliminate the problems and inefficiencies with paper records, Dr. McKnight says.
• Information is kept on a hard computer drive and backed up offsite so nothing is lost in a disaster or emergency.
• He can search for a patient’s record by name, age, diagnosis and other ways so a patient’s record can never be lost. “A computer search is so much less effort than trying to find one misplaced chart.”
• Records are more secure and private because fewer people have access to them.
• After hours, he can access a patient’s information on his laptop, if necessary, to prescribe medicine or to be better informed in a medical emergency.
• The computer keeps better track of patient tests for him. For example, if he orders a CAT scan, it reminds him daily until he gets the results back.
• Through the laptop, he can fax prescriptions to pharmacies or information to referring doctors. Insurance claims are filed electronically.
• Electronic records can help eliminate inefficiencies. “So many of the things we do for one patient with a particular condition, we do for other patients with similar conditions,” Dr. McKnight says. By setting up templates for everything from prescriptions to common diagnoses, he says, he doesn’t have to redo the same step every time he sees a different patient with a similar problem.
“No system is perfect, though,” he says. Electronic records have their challenges, such as educating clinic staff, setting standards and finding ways to coordinate with hospital electronic files.
Still, Dr. McKnight goes few places without his portable laptop these days. He’s looking forward to the day he can use his laptop to make medical rounds at the hospital.
He’s not missing all that paper at all.