Electronic medical records are the wave of the future, and Chicago area hospitals are already on board.

Hospitals with more advanced record-keeping technology have fewer complications, lower mortality rates, and lower costs, according to a study released last week by Johns Hopkins University. The study looked at more than 40 hospitals with digital record systems and more than 160,000 patients in a six-month period.

“It’s the right thing to do and we’re going to see a lot of studies like this in the next 5-10 years that attempt to measure the benefits of electronic medical records,” said Dr. Mike Kelleher, chief medical information oficer at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Most of Chicago’s top medical institutions including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, NorthShore University HealthSystem–Evanston Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital, Highland Park Hospital, Skokie Hospital, and 75 doctor’s offices–, University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and Children’s Memorial Hospital have either already made the leap to digital records, or are in the process.

Former President George W. Bush laid out the goal of having electronic records nationwide by 2014, a goal that was quickly adopted by President Barack Obama.

Wired In

The study findings are no surprise to Chicago-area hospitals, well versed in digital technology.

“What we did was transformational–it changed the way we do things and the way we think,” says Mark Neaman, president and chief executive officer of NorthShore University HealthSystem.

“Patients can even have a Blackberry conversation with their physician or order a prescription online,” Neaman said.

NorthShore University HealthSystem, one of the pioneers in digital records, went completely digital in 2004.

Digital records can even prevent mistakes from being made.

“We have seen measurable improvements in the quality of our outcomes, reduced medication errors and become generally more efficient,” Neaman said.

The complete transition at NortthShore $took 15 months from launch to finish in April of 2004 and cost an estimated $42 million, according to Neaman.

“We applied the big bang theory,” Neaman said. “We wanted to have everything up and running quickly.”

Almost all Chicago-area hospitals have some digital record keeping system in place or are in the process of implementing one.

Security, however, becomes a major concern with personal information in digital form.

With electronic records, it is much easier to track who has accessed a file—an important security feature—but making sure the right people have access can be time consuming.

“It’s a big concern,” Kelleher said. “You have to make sure that the people you give access to are properly vetted.”

“Before electronic medical records, files were continually being misplaced,” said Dr. David S. Channin, radiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and chief of imaging informatics at Northwestern University Medical School. “We relied on loose pieces of paper with illegible writing, and human memory.”

Northwestern Memorial has used electronic records for more than a decade now for nearly all of their services.

More Benefits

The benefits of digital records aid in many different aspects of patient care.

One key benefit is allowing doctors to find information on patients more easily.

While it may take physicians or nurses more time to enter information into the system, the ability to find it and search for it with ease is invaluable according to Kelleher.

Patients and doctors can also have their information readily available at the touch of a keyboard without having to dig through extensive files.

Digital Divide

Despite the many advantages there are still countless hospitals that are falling behind with this technology.
After years of recording information manually, some doctors are hesitant to change to a new electronic system.

“The older physicians are more likely to be unwilling or uncertain about using the computer system,” said Kelleher.

“The catch is that there are tradeoffs between quality and efficiency and independent tradeoffs within each one,” says Dr. Channin.

There is also a steep cost of investment as far as equipment and training.

NorthShore University HealthSystem invested an estimated $42 million in the new technology, $5 million of which went to training staff, according to Neaman.

They are foreseeing an estimated return of 17 million dollars per year in savings related to the new system, but the return is very long-term and small in comparison.

Originally Published by Vanessa Handand and Chris Kelly, Northwestern University.