How many times have you taken a person’s history and asked, “What meds do you take and what dose?” or “When was your surgery or when were you treated for a serious illness?” and “Do you have any allergies to medication?”

Invariably, the person knows part of the answer, isn’t sure of the actual date or exactly what drug gave them that “outbreak of hives.”  If only the information was nicely recorded and saved using computer technology, then healthcare providers would no longer have to repeat those same questions.

President Obama recently signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which provides $19 billion in incentives to put electronic medical record technology in place by 2014. Currently, only a small fraction of the 5,000 hospitals in the U.S. are close to meeting standards set out by the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) and less than one in five doctors utilize electronic medical records in their office.

What as nurses can we do to encourage patients to accept and demand computer technology be used in healthcare?

1.  Suggest patients use Personal Medical Records (PMRs).

Patients should record and maintain their own medical information.  The internet has created tools that enable patient information to be easily stored and updated either on line or for those concerned about privacy, through software that can be downloaded on their own computer or even using preprinted downloadable forms.  For elderly patients, present the idea to a family member who regularly assists them since that person may be the one who helps achieve this goal. 

MyPHR.com, http://www.myphr.com/  sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has a section under “tools and resources” that will create a list of personal health record sources that are either paper, home computer or   internet based.

HealthVault http://www.healthvault.com/personal/websites.html?type=application

lists a directory of services such as the Mayo clinic Health manager, Healthy Circles and Medikeeper that use a secure method of storing and updating patient medical information as well as links to other health applications.

 

should take an attitude that computers are required to move forward in the big picture of improved cost effective quality of care.

Volunteer to be involved in evaluating EMR systems being considered at your workplace to give input about whether they will meet nursing needs. Athenahealth and Sequelmed are two vendors of electronic medical records that the Ohio Medical Association endorses.

Encourage patients to use pharmacies that have computerized systems to track and monitor their medications for allergies and drug interactions to alert the doctor of potential problems. 

3.  Suggest ways to implement emailing patients with non-critical or non-confidential information if your worksite uses the internet. 

Each heath care location has plenty of situations where information can be emailed instead of calling a patient.  Maybe it is list or link to medical suppliers, nursing agencies or local lab draw locations.

For the exchange of more personal information, there are web sites such as “Housedoc” http://housedoc.us/ that meets AMA guidelines and provides HIPPA compliant security for information such as a lab results or medication renewals.  This is one way offices can start incorporating computer technology usage into their day to day practice. 

Electronic maintenance of accurate patient healthcare information is now the mission of all healthcare providers. Nurses play a central role in the push to implement computerized medical records which may protect a patient’s safety and possibly save their life.

Michele Blacksberg is an R.N. freelance writer and has been a nurse for almost 30 years. 

If you have suggestions of topics you would like to see at LPNAO please contact her at her writing page http://www.helium.com/users/487540/show_articles and click on contact this writer.