March 2010
Coming Soon to a Chicago Family Health Center Near You: Electronic Health Records!
As many of you know, this summer, Chicago Family Health Center will begin using an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system to help enhance the quality, efficiency, service and safety of our organization. This is going to be a huge change for our organization. Going from paper to electronic will not only change the way we record information, but it will change the cultural fabric of our organization. Valerie Reynolds, our Community Affairs Manager and editor of First Fridays is now serving on the PIER Committee and working closely with Jim Socha, Chief Information Officer and Dr. Laura Loesel, the co-project managers of our EHR implementation, to ensure that all of the EHR-related information you receive in this newsletter is useful and accurate, making this the official communications hub for EHR Implementation information.
As of right now, our scheduled date to go live with our EHR systems is Tuesday, August 3, 2010. To help ensure that all employees of Chicago Family Health are well-informed and well-prepared for the transition, our monthly employee newsletter will feature articles that will help equip us all for the implementation of our EHR system. Listed below are answers to few questions that will help us all get a better understanding of what to expect in August.
- What is an EHR?
According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), an EHR, which stands for Electronic Health Record, is defined as longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. So what does that mean? EHR is a collection of health information, about individual patients or populations, done electronically. Information that was previously only available with a paper chart, can now be shared across different health care settings electronically. - Who will the EHR implementation affect?
Almost every CFHC employee will be affected by the implementation of our electronic health records system. It will change the way we conduct our business on a day-to-day basis. In-take information will be electronically input into patient records by PSR’s, providers and medical assistants will begin updating patients’ medical information electronically, billing and finance will use patients’ electronic health records to help bill patients more accurately and efficiently and that is just to name few. Chicago Family Health Center will be the first Illinois Primary Health Care Association (IPHCA) community health center to implement and go live with an EHR system, positioning the Center as a statewide pioneer in the implementation of EHR systems in community health centers. - Why Switch to an EHR?
The Community Health Center Alliance (CHCA) believes, that in day to day operations, EHRs improve the quality of service health centers provide to their clients by: streamlining charting practices; adding information electronically to searchable database records, which prevent potential hazards of handwritten paper files; improving patient safety; and alerting providers to critical information in real time. In a speech shortly before taking office, President Obama pledged his support for EHR:
“This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests,” said Obama. “It just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs — it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.”
As mentioned above, each month CFHC’s employee newsletter will feature an informative article about our upcoming EHR Implementation. You will also receive periodic updates and preparation tips to help you seamlessly transition from paper recording to electronic recording.
