Revolutionizing Patient Experience with Electronic Medical Record
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What’s On MyLGHealth?
The new electronic medical record system being implemented throughout Lancaster General Health not only gives caregivers fast access to vital data about patients — it also gives patients information about their health whenever they need it.
MyLGHealth, a secure online portal, gives patients access to their medical records via the Internet. With approval from their physician, patients are able to use MyLGHealth to view results of their lab, radiology and cardiology tests online.
MyLGHealth sends e-mails to patients reminding them to schedule routine tests such as prostate cancer screenings, colonoscopies and mammograms. Patients can also use MyLGHealth to send secure, non-urgent e-mails to their physician’s office, request appointment times, review their medical history, request prescription refills and view background information about their illnesses.
Terry Grogan, Interim Administrator, IT Operations at Lancaster General Health, uses MyLGHealth as a Lancaster General Health patient.
“MyLGHealth is very convenient and it saves me time,” said Grogan. “I don’t have to go to the doctor’s office or make several phone calls to accomplish those things. I also like the fact that MyLGHealth lets me track my test results over time, which helps me keep an eye on my blood pressure.”
Availability of MyLGHealth is steadily increasing at Lancaster General Health. Patients of Lincoln Family Medicine in Ephrata have been using MyLGHealth since July 2008 and Strasburg Family Health offered it to patients in March 2009. By spring 2010, nearly all medical practices in the Lancaster General Health system will offer MyLGHealth |
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Rick Follett, Interim IT
Administrator, LG Health
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Dr. Michael Ripchinski,
Physician Informatics
Liaison, LG Health
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An integral part of the extraordinary experience at Lancaster General Health is ensuring that physicians and nurses have easy access to their patients’ complete medical records. That’s why LG Health and some of its physician practices have implemented electronic medical records (EMR) throughout the Lancaster General Health system.
“Computers can aid us tremendously by bringing the right information to the right place at the right time,” said Rick Follett, Interim IT Administrator at LG Health. “By using information stored in the EMR, clinicians can have all the evidence at hand to make critical medical decisions.”
With authorized access to patient EMR, which are stored in a central computer database, healthcare professionals can efficiently record diagnoses, histories, allergies, medications and test results, improving collaboration between caregivers at different locations and providing physicians with a single, comprehensive reference record when treating a patient.
Earlier this year, President Obama declared EMR to be a national imperative for improving efficiency in healthcare, stating, “This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests.”
Getting the “Full Picture” Avoids Complications
“Patients who are seen over many years have numerous records and it may take awhile to locate charts with test results and other important information to make treatment decisions,” said Michael Ripchinski, MD, Physician Informatics Liaison at LG Health. “But electronic records are structured in an indexed format, so that information is easily retrievable to help make an accurate and timely diagnosis.”
For example, patients may have lists of medications compiled from many doctor visits. With an EMR, a patient’s complete, updated medication list is instantly available to all caregivers, helping avoid prescribing errors and enabling doctors to send prescriptions directly to the pharmacy electronically.
Sharing Knowledge with the Community
LG Health is working collaboratively to provide computerized medical records for 284 physicians employed by the health system. By July, 60 percent of those physicians will be using EMR and all will be linked into the computer system by March 2010.
LG Health will also share the medical record system with independent physicians in Lancaster County who aren’t employed by the health system. This program, called Community Connect, will be piloted to four physician practices during summer and fall. Upon completion of the pilot later this year, the program will be available to independent practices that are affiliated with LG Health.
“Our goal is to implement EMR throughout the entire health system within three years,” said Follet. “Whether our caregivers are making a diagnosis or performing a surgery, we want to be able to quickly deliver a patient’s entire health record into their hands.”
With MyLGHealth, a secure online connection, patients can view their medical
history online, 24/7 from the convenience of their home computer.