Electronic Medical Records

How could this happen?

I will never forget the day we received the phone call with the news that Mom was in the hospital fighting for her life. We had just talked to her a few days before and she seemed fine, in spite of some health problems that were being managed through various medications.

As it turned out, the medications were the problem-not individually but collectively.

Apparently, her doctors had not communicated with each other about the various drugs they were prescribing for the particular problem related to their specialty, and the result was an unexpected drug interaction that almost proved fatal.

It’s the electronic age!

I remember at the time, we were surprised that in this age of electronic medical records, each of her doctors and her pharmacist had not been able to review her medical records, and be made aware of the serious ramifications of combining the medications that she was taking.

With the advent of electronic health records, it is possible for each health care provider to see the entire picture of an individual’s status, including, health history, family medical issues, current and past medications, therapy, hospital visits, lab tests and any other medical information that is pertinent to making proper treatment decisions.

In addition, in this age of specialization, the use of electronic medical records software allows a seamless transition from one health care facility to another, since all patient records are easily accessible to doctors, therapists, pharmacists and other health care professionals. This means that if the time comes when Mom needs to enter into some kind of long term care, those in charge of her well-being should have all the information they need to make the best decisions about her care.

Many happy returns of the day.

You will be happy to hear that due to the quick diagnosis and effective action of the ER staff, Mom recovered from her close call and is now a hale and hearty octogenarian.

Since then, we have been assured that her meds are being carefully monitored through the use of medical records software, so we are resting a little easier now and looking forward to celebrating Dad’s ninetieth birthday this summer.

We are very thankful that Mom will be there to help cut the cake!


Click here to go from Electronic Medical Records page to Age Concern page.