Takoma Hospital Implements Electronic Medical Records

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — We live in a world surrounded by technology, where we can access most everything from a computer or smartphone, but the medical field is still catching up.  One local hospital is leading the way in Tennessee by implementing electronic medical records.

“It’s just not feasible to keep it all on paper anymore,” said Congressman Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN).

That’s why Takoma Hospital says they are already ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing electronic medical records.

“Our organization began that journey in 2007 when we first implemented an electronic system for nursing notes and lab orders and x-ray results, and those kind of things,” said Takoma president and CEO Daniel Wolcott.

The federal government rewarded Takoma with a $1.3 million reimbursement check today, for a program that is helping cut costs, while improving efficiency and patient safety.

“Faster care for the patient, reduces the amount of time it takes to take care of patients, and enables us to be confident that we’re prescribing and giving the patient the right medications,” said Wolcott.  “We reduce medication errors by 80 to 85 percent when we implement this electronic records system.”

So with all the technology around today, why is it taking this long to implement electronic medical records everywhere?

Congressman Roe says it’s getting computer programmers to understand the medical side of things.

“They don’t know what to put in and what not to, so you end with a lot of superfluous information, and until we get that figured out about what you really need in a record, that’s what’s made it hard, because medicine is very, very complex,” said Roe.

Source: www2.tricities.com; David McAvoy; January 5, 2012