Electronic Medical Records
The Canadian Medical Association estimates over 85 per cent of patient care occurs at the community level by general practitioners, primary care teams, long-term care and home care facilities and local hospitals. In 2008 alone, 335 million office-based physician visits were made in Canada with an estimated 94 per cent resulting in handwritten paper records.
Electronic medical record (EMR) systems are beginning to turn rooms filled with paper into organized, easy to access, electronic files. Specific to a facility or a local network of points of care, an EMR system provides physicians and their patient care team, including nurses and office support staff, with electronic access to vital patient health information, decision support, billing and office administration tools.
An EMR system captures and records patient health information in an electronic format. All medical information sent to a physician office (such as lab results, images, consultant or hospital notes) are incorporated into the electronic medical record to give a complete picture of a patient’s health condition.
How EMRs related to the EHR
Electronic medical records are a key component in realizing the provincial and national vision for a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR). An EHR is a private and secure network of systems that connect information from the various points of patient care such as public health, primary care offices, hospitals, community health centres, long-term care facilities, labs, pharmacies, and diagnostic imaging clinics.
On the front lines of care delivery, electronic medical records provide essential information to be captured in the EHR. As progress continues with the building of EHRs and the integration of these systems, EMR systems will both draw information from the EHR repositories and contribute information back. Together, the EMR and EHR will provide comprehensive patient information to authorized health care providers, when and where it matters most.
Learn more about EHRs.
EMRs:
- Improve individual provider productivity
- Improve overall office efficiency
- Improve sharing of patient information with other providers
- Improve provider-patient collaboration and sharing of information
- Enhance ability to coordinate continuity of care for patients
- Provide availability of clinical decision support tools
- Enhance efficiency in ordering prescriptions, referrals, lab tests, X-rays etc.
- Improve management of chronic diseases
Experiences from the forefront of EMR implementation
Despite overwhelming anecdotal evidence that doctors who have switched to an EMR system would never return to paper records, solid evidence to support this premise has been lacking – until now.
In response to this knowledge gap, Infoway sponsored the Canadian Medical Association in its undertaking of national research in support of the promotion and adoption of EMRs. Academic researchers from across the country were engaged to carry out the first evidence-based work to examine this question at the primary care level. Complied as 20 case studies, Experiences from the Forefront of EMR Use shows how physicians and their care teams in community practice are using technology to improve care and practice efficiency.
In studying the 20 diverse clinics across Canada, from project inception to execution, it is clear that there are factors common to every successful EMR implementation. Learn more about what it takes.
Our results demonstrate the breadth and depth of Canadian primary care practice and that the drivers for EMR implementation and use are as variable as the practices themselves. Despite this, the common message is that not one clinic would return to paper-based charts, even if paid to do so.
Dr. Nicola Shaw, Principal Investigator
Connect with your peers
The Clinician Peer Support Network is a pan-Canadian peer-to-peer program that promotes the active engagement of clinical practitioners involved in the implementation of electronic health information systems across Canada – including EMRs.
The network brings together natural leaders to:
- share best practices and build new knowledge,
- communicate stories to help develop expertise and facilitate learning,
- identify common and unique barriers in the implementation of change and clinical transformation.
Learn more about how the Network functions and the initiatives under way.