   Health Information TechnologyQueensCare Family Clinics is a Federally Qualified Health Center, made up of 7 clinical sites, devoted to implementing and using Health Information Technology (HIT) to further improve the quality of care we give to our patients. We strongly believe in the ability of HIT to both assist and drive the care we provide, for the over 30,000 unique patients we serve. We have used a practice management system for 10 years and a disease registry system for over 5 years. Additionally, we regularly submit data to a national diabetes collaborative and actively participate in a vaccine registry for the over 7,000 pediatric lives we care for. Other partnerships include being a member of the Cal-RHIO Health-e-LA from its inception. In the last year we have also fully implemented an Electronic Health Records System. By launching an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, we have changed the face of medicine in our clinics. Doctors now have a complete medical record with laboratory results, prescribed medications and general health history available at their fingertips. Medical providers see drug interaction warnings and patient allergies every time a drug is prescribed. Patients can see how their health is progressing by looking at color graphs tracking disease trends and treatment outcomes. Coordination of clinical care has vastly improved with the ability to send lab and prescription orders electronically. Electronic data can be merged to give a quick summary of a patient’s health history and raise instant alerts for chronically ill patients. Disease management efforts become easily coordinated, eliminating gaps in knowledge anywhere along the continuum. In the near future, patient records will be portable, allowing transmission from one caregiver to another, and leading to improved care and efficiency. In short, EHR provides the underserved population served by QueensCare Family Clinics with the benefits of cutting edge medical technology that all of us deserve.
Future CollaborationsQueensCare Family Clinics will be presenting at the National Association of Community Health Centers HIT conference being held in Orlando, Florida in October of 2008. We are also looking to join the Long Beach Health Information Exchange as a joint venture with other Los Angeles Community clinics in order to begin a health information exchange network, allowing us to share and obtain information for our migrant patients, who do not have a medical home. We will be able to decrease medical errors and unneeded testing by having tests and radiology results which were done at other facilities, readily available. We will also increase our providers’ ability to render appropriate medical care by having patients’ medical history from other clinics / emergency rooms. In exchange, emergency rooms will have access to patients’ information when they need it most - during an emergency.
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