Electronic Health Records (EHR) are quickly becoming the trend among hospitals and medical practices. EHR include key patient information including: progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports. EHR have many benefits mostly centered on the elimination of the paper chart.
Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights realized the need for the new system before transitioning from their 60,000 square foot medical practice in Summit to their present 250,000 square foot home in Berkeley Heights in 2006. Summit Medical Group is one of the largest medical practices in the area to be using EHR.
“It became clear to us with the growing size of our practice that we could not rely on a traditional paper chart. One of our strengths has always been that there is one chart that follows patients so all doctors know their patients full medical history,” stated Dr. Robert Rosenbaum, an endocrinologist and the physician chairman of EHR at Summit Medical Group.
Implementation
During the initial phases of EHR implementation, Summit Medical Group had a duplicate system with paper and electronic records before going strictly electronic in 2006. Paper-based patient medical records from approximately 2001 were scanned into the EHR system as well as additional important information such as hospitalizations and pertinent medical history. Currently, new patients’ paper-based charts are scanned and catalogued into the EHR system.
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