Patient benefits
Patients can view patterns and trends in their health for a more thorough diagnosis and health plan.
Patients can transition more easily between area health care providers.
E-prescribing allows patients to receive their medications almost immediately.
The electronic system will cross reference medications with other medications, allergies and diagnosis, reducing the chance of mistakes and increasing safety.
By 2013, patients will be able to view parts of their own medical records with an encrypted online portal.
SPRINGFIELD — A local doctor is leading the charge to switch medical records from paper to electronic, something required of all health care providers by 2015.
Dr. Peter Muir, from Springfield Center Family Medicine on Middle Urbana Road, has not only begun adopting electronic medical records in his office, he has been working to make sure other area health care providers do the same.
“Our office 10 years ago, and a lot of doctor’s offices at present, are on paper charts,” Muir said. “Every time a patient comes in, information is on a new piece of paper. When you update the record, the information is consolidated and you end up losing detail.”
With electronic medical records, no detail is lost, and every record is easily available so Muir can see trends in a patient’s health, he said. The electronic network also does a cross check for medications, allergies and diagnoses, increasing patient safety and reducing mistakes.
One of Muir’s longtime patient’s, Patricia Elder, has benefited greatly from the electronic system. Elder has diabetes, and sees Muir every three months.
“I think it is so much easier,” Elder said. She has been a patient at Springfield Center Family Medicine for about 15 years. “I like it when he looks up (past check ups) and we look back at the progress.”
And when Elder lost a child three years ago, Muir was able to pull up information about the child and see which child had passed before they saw him, she added.
“Everything was right there for him.”
The federal government is encouraging doctors to begin switching their paper records and e-prescribing by 2012 to be eligible for incentive payments. This Medicare “meaningful use” program requires doctors to show they have built a network to share medical records within their practice and with other health care providers in the community, as well as use e-prescribing to electronically send prescriptions to pharmacists.
Muir and Dr. John Crankshaw from Family Physicians of Urbana were recognized May 20 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for attaining the first steps toward meaningful use. Those who achieve meaningful use could earn up to $44,000 if they maintain it over five years.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, only seven health care providers in Ohio have achieved meaningful use, four of them from Springfield Center Family Medicine.
“It really takes a village to get to meaningful use, it’s a group working together,” Muir said.
That team-oriented mentality is the basis of the Collaborating Communities Health Information Exchange, a nonprofit organization helping health care providers in Clark and Champaign counties share medical information easily through an electronic network, said Marty Larson, executive director of CCHIE. The organization uses the HealthBridge, a secure electronic network, to share records and connect local providers.
So far, CCHIE has information flowing from Springfield Regional Medical Center and Mercy Memorial in Urbana, Compunet, LabCorp and soon will be coming from Crystal Clear Imaging, Muir said. Before CCHIE, providers would have to pay upward of $10,000 for an interface with each company they wanted to connect with. But even with a more cost-effective network, just setting up electronic medical records and the information technology resources is difficult and expensive for providers.
“Getting to meaningful use is expensive, it’s a lot of work from a lot of people,” Muir said. Providers have to retrain their staff, restructure the work flow, and pay for hardware and software.
The Medicare incentive payment helps, but it only covers a fraction of the cost to make the switch, Muir said. This year’s incentive payment of $18,000 only covered half of what Springfield Center Family Center spent last year to upgrade its servers.
CCHIE does consulting with primary care physicians to help them get a start electronic medical records. They partner with a federally mandated regional extension center that also does consulting.
“There’s services we can provide to primary care physicians,” Larson said. “We can give them a workflow redesign or a software reassessment and help them pick out (electronic medical record equipment).”
A local electronic medical record consulting business, Oncore Associates, also has been working with area doctors to teach them about reaching meaningful use, and has found that many doctors are not aware of the repercussions of delaying the switch to medical records.
“Health care organizations know they have to implement (electronic medical records), but don’t realize the funds available if they do it earlier,” said Jeff Back, a managing partner for Oncore. “ ... And some are saying they’ll take the penalty. There’s no penalties with Medicaid but there are with Medicare.”
If providers have not adopted electronic medical records by 2015, they will lose 1 percent of Medicare reimbursements. In 2016, they lose 2 percent, and 2017 and on they lose 3 percent, according to the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services. Providers also lose 1 percent of their incentive payments if they do not begin e-prescribing by June 30, and the penalty increases to 2.5 percent in 2013.
Back said doctors fear the sheer cost of the transition, but the benefits to patient are substantial.
Muir says now when he sees a new patient, everything is thoroughly entered directly into the computer network. And with e-prescribing, patients can retrieve medicine from the pharmacy on the way home from the doctor.
“Now when I’m done, I’m done,” Muir said. “When I used to (dictate) a note, it could take three weeks to get on the chart. Now I type it in, (the patients) get a summary sheet when they leave and they can keep it with them.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371.
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