...In the culmination of a years-long effort to computerize medical records, Roger Williams is now going all the way, promptly scanning the roughly one-third of each chart that is still done on paper to produce a complete electronic medical record...

...The Rhode Island Quality Institute is spearheading a project, in close collaboration with the R.I. Department of Health, providers, insurers and others, to develop a statewide health-information exchange, and legislation to begin shaping it and ensure it properly protects patient confidentiality is in the works right now...

...All across the hospital, more than 100 “computers on wheels” provide quick access to the electronic records, which by now include, by default, about 65 to 70 percent of each patient’s information, said Laurie Fiore, director of clinical information services.

Through a secure online system, doctors also can access those records remotely from their home computers or their offices – both to follow up on patients, and to provide direction to nurses when they are off site and a patient needs them...

...Ultimately, Fiore said, Roger Williams’ goal is to do far less scanning and more direct electronic entry of medical information. Some behavioral medicine units, for example, are already using no paper, and computerized physician order entry is being phased in across the facility...

...The cost of the scanning has been insignificant, Fiore said, because it involves employees who had been handling paper before and were retrained to do this...

Full Story: RWMC among first to go paperless with medical records Source: Providence Business News, February 11th, 2008 Author: Marion Davis Added on February 12th, 2008 at 7:37 pm, by Judy He