Electronic Medical Record is Used Here in Hunterdon

 This article was written by: Robert Coates, M.D., Medical Director, Hunterdon Healthcare Partners

Hunterdon HealthCare Partners (HHP), is a partnership between Hunterdon Healthcare, the parent organization for the Hunterdon Medical Center, and Hunterdon Physician Practice Association, which represents nearly 200 local physicians. Its purpose is to allow the Hunterdon Medical Center and the physicians to work together to improve the quality of care; improve the access to care; and control the cost of care for Hunterdon County and the surrounding areas.

A major tool in achieving the organization’s goals is establishing a shared medical record using a medical software system called NextGen. If you have visited a HHP physician in the past year, it is likely that your doctor has been documenting your care and ordering your tests and medications via this computer program. If your doctor is not currently using NextGen, there is a good chance that they will within the next two years. Why the push to use electronic medical records? Electronic health records have been shown to be a major factor contributing to safer medical care. Computer documentation helps with the age old problem of doctor’s handwriting. More importantly your prescriptions are not subject to your pharmacist trying to interpret your doctor’s handwriting. Your prescriptions can be faxed or sent electronically to your pharmacy, which should decrease your waiting time. Your doctor can access your test results within seconds. If you are due for a preventative test, such as a pap test or a colonoscopy, the software can remind your doctor to order it.

Hunterdon Medical Center has a long history of training family doctors, many of whom have stayed to practice in this area. As an organization, HHP believes that all patients should have a primary care physician that they designate as their “medical home.” Yet we recognize that as patients live longer with more chronic conditions, they often need to consult with or be followed by one or more specialists. It is critical that all the physicians who provide your care communicate with each other, so that each knows what the other is doing. To aid with the issue, HHP is introducing the Community Health Solution. The Community Health Solution, or CHS, is a NextGen product that allows physicians to share certain data with other physicians caring for the same patient. This software allows all of your physicians to see: your list of medications, so that no one prescribes a new medication that interacts with your existing medications; your list of medication allergies, so that it is consistent and accessible; access to previous lab and other testing, so that expensive testing is not needlessly duplicated because prior results are not available; and prior medical history so that you need not repeat the same information to multiple providers.

We understand that different individuals have varying feelings about the availability of information via electronic means. We assure you that this information is secure and that we have programs in place to be sure that no one views your information who is not directly involved in your care.  The Community Health Solution is set up so that individuals can choose not to have their information available to all of their providers (called “opting out”).  If you so choose, let your doctor’s office staff know and they will honor your wishes without question. However, for the reasons outlined above, we hope that you will allow us to share your medical information among providers so that we can improve the quality, lower the cost, and streamline the process of delivering the very best medical care to our patients and neighbors.

After the Community Health Solution is implemented, we hope to institute another NextGen product called NextMD. When fully installed, this product will allow patients to view their own testing results on a secure Internet site, communicate securely with their physicians, and make certain types of appointments on line. We hope that you will be as excited as we are, as we introduce these solutions to make your medical care more convenient and efficient. But don’t worry—if you don’t have a computer, we will still answer the phone and see you in person.