Access To Electronic Medical Records Significantly Increases Efficiency Of Emergency Care

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 02 Jun 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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A new study led by Paul Sierzenski, MD, RDMS, of Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, DE, discusses the benefits gained from providing health care workers with immediate access to patient medical records during a mass casualty incident.

The authors believe that using radiofrequency devices that electronically contain a person's medical records presents a solution that could both streamline aid and reduce medical charges, two often incompatible goals.

Medical history is an important component to a patient's medical care. Combined with immediately accessing patient medical information, this tool has the potential to radically change the speed of treatment and a patient's medical care costs in a large-scale emergency.

"During a mass casualty incident, time and resources may not be available to acquire this information," says Sierzenski. "This technology will allow health care providers to access medical records almost immediately so that appropriate care can be provided."

The study finds that in a prospective mass casualty scenario, the ability to electronically access a patient's medical records would also significantly decrease patient charges. The research shows that per-patient savings could average $685.67 simply by avoiding extraneous tests.

"Health care providers can incorporate this information to deliver appropriate care in a timely, cost-effective manner," says Sierzenski. "Using radiofrequency devices represent one potential means for allowing a secure patient identifier and access to patient medical history."

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The presentation is entitled "Use of VeriChip For Access to Patient Medical History Verification Significantly Decreases Emergency Care Charges Among Critically Injured Patients in a Randomized, Blinded, Prospective Mass Casualty Scenario." This paper was presented at the 2008 SAEM Annual Meeting, May 29-June 1, 2008, Washington, D.C. Abstracts of the papers presented are published in Vol. 15, No. 5, Supplement 1, May 2008 of the official journal of the SAEM, Academic Emergency Medicine.

About The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (http://www.saem.org/)

The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) is a national non-profit organization of over 6,000 academic emergency physicians, emergency medicine residents and medical students. SAEM's mission is to improve patient care by advancing research and education in emergency medicine. SAEM's vision is to promote ready access to quality emergency care for all patients, to advance emergency medicine as an academic and clinical discipline, and to maintain the highest professional standards as clinicians, teachers, and researchers. The SAEM Annual Meeting attracts approximately 2,000 medical students, residents and academic emergency physicians. It provides the largest forum for the presentation of original research in the specialty of Emergency Medicine.

About Academic Emergency Medicine (http://www.aemj.org/)

AEM is a peer-reviewed journal whose goal is to advance the science, education, and clinical practice of emergency medicine, to serve as a voice for the academic emergency medicine community, and to enhance the goals and objectives of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). Members and non-members worldwide depend on this journal for translational medicine relevant to emergency medicine, in addition to clinical news, case studies and more.

About Wiley-Blackwell

Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and its merger with Wiley's Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal. For more information on Wiley-Blackwell, please visit http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ or http://interscience.wiley.com/

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Source: Sean Wagner
Wiley-Blackwell

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