Clinic’s Physicians will have access to drug data, lab test
David Howell
Journal Staff writer
Edmonton
Physicians at
the Allin Clinic already use computers to keep track of their patients’
medical records.
Within five months, they may be able to use their internal system
to receive information from the province’s new electronic
health record.
“We’ll have access to the drug database that’s
available through the pharmacy information network,” clinic
administrator Mel Snihurowych said Tuesday.
“And we’ll be able to access lab results. Not only results that the doctor ordered here, but also lab results that were ordered by other physicians, so there is less duplication. Those are the two main factors that we see happening.
“I think it’s entirely possible by the end of March
2004 that all of that information will be available."
The Allin is a multidisciplinary clinic with 21 general practitioners,
two surgeons, three pediatricians, one Obstretrician-gynecologist
and three internal medicine specialists.
It’s already a part of the computer revolutions in doctors’ offices. Since June 2002, most physicians at the clinic have been using a computer system to record their patients’ medical information. It’s accessible from 120 points in the building examination rooms, nursing stations and doctors' offices. Each patient’s electronic file contains his or her medical history, lists of allergies and prescriptions, and other information such as letters of referral to specialists. All information must be relevant to patient care. Security measures ensure the information stays private.
There have been growing pains, but physicians and nurses have
grown to appreciate the computer system the past 16 months,
Snihurowych said.
“ They wouldn’t go back to paper because the access
to information we have now is so much better than before. It’s
legible, organized and accessible.”
The provincewide health record system will complement the
internal system by providing more useful information, Snihurowych
said,
particularly
the ability to share pharmaceutical information, which can
be critical to a patient’s health.
“If you’re seeing a physician in edmonton and you’re on multiple medications, and you’ve gone to Calgary, you’re in a car accident you’re unconscious, and a physician in emergency goes to look up your medications, he’ll be able to access what medications you’re on.”
Family
practitioner Dr. Joe Tilley, a partner at the clinic, said computerized
health records are “the wave of the future”
in health care.
“I don’t think we’re doing faster medicine but
I think we’re doing better medicine,” he said of the
clinic’s internal computer system.
Tilley already gets lab test results through a Capital Health lab
record system. The province wide system will give him broader access
to test results conducted by physicians other than himself.