Chemists will tell you that covalent bonds — which share pairs of electrons between atoms — are the strongest bonds known to science. But as we mark National Health Center Week with the theme “The Chemistry for Strong Communities,” it’s clear that the bonds that unite the nation’s community health centers are perhaps the strongest known to social scientists.
From Tiffin to Coldwater, from Pauling to Upper Sandusky, orthopedic patients in Northwest Ohio are never far from one of the offices of the Orthopaedic Institute of Ohio (OIO). But the more important point is this: No matter which office provides care, the distance between the patient and that patient’s records is essentially zero.
The idea that a search could save a life sounds like just that – an idea. Yet that dream has now become a reality. People today can now ask a question and get results almost instantaneously. But it wasn’t always that way.
Theorists like Vannevar Bush were dreaming up ways of creating an associative memory storage and virtual retrieval system as far back as the 1940s. But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the first search engine got off the ground.
On any given day, medical professionals and patients alike may search the internet, use social media, or order a meal using their smartphone. The remarkable technologies behind those daily activities surely extend to healthcare information — right?
Whether you live in the mountains, by the sea, or in town, summer is great for getting out and staying active. It’s also — oops! — prime season for injuring one or more of those complicated joints, tendons, and ligaments that allow humans to walk, run, jump, bend, twist, and move in complex ways.
There’s no doubt that PRISMA, the eClinicalWorks health information search engine, is a powerful tool for obtaining a complete, searchable view of patient health histories. Still, many practices may be wondering how it fits into their workflows to change how they practice medicine.
Zeid Medical Group runs women’s health and pediatric clinics in Tyler and Longview, Texas, that serve about 1,000 patients each month. Like any busy medical practice today, they see a mix of established and new patients who come from all walks of life and have medical histories that range from simple to complex.
In less than a generation, there has been a dramatic transformation in interoperability, the sharing of clinical patient data among providers and facilities.
For many years, the standard for interoperability could best be described as “Try to remember.” Physicians relied upon in-house records, questionnaires, and information gathered during patient visits.
Your providers thrive when they have access to the latest information on health, illness, and treatments. A 2006 study by the American Medical Informatics Association concluded that when physicians need good information they seek out gold-standard sources, including high-quality medical journals and reputable websites that specialize in their area of expertise.
Patients today are likely to visit many different healthcare facilities to receive care. When going from place to place, it’s possible that records may not be as accessible to providers as necessary. That’s why we’ve created PRISMA, the eClinicalWorks® health information search engine.
Maybe you’ve done it before? You know, clicking that “update later” button on the little notification that pops up in the corner of your computer.
With healthcare data constantly flowing in from multiple sources, how are providers supposed to best organize patient information within their EHR? Truly knowing your patient population starts by finding a means of aggregating scattered data and then funneling it into a convenient and organized system.