Lexington County, SC (WLTX) -- As a patient, you want to receive the best medical care possible. One local hospital is aiming to do just that through a new electronic medical record system they are currently rolling out.
Palmetto Health family care physician Dr. William Harman says new medical records technology is making life better for patients and physicians. Harman describes the old paper system as a headache.
"Searching for charts in the office when patients would call in. A patient would go to a specialist and we haven't gotten the chart from a specialist in a weeks time," said Harmon.
Now instead of charts, a network of computer systems linked to some 70 Palmetto Health offices, gives physicians a detailed look at a patient's previous care, anything from allergies to required medications.
"Especially should the patient goto the Emergency Room. The Emergency Room doctor can actually pull up the patients chart," said Harman.
Harman's practice was the first of Palmetto Health's to come online. The new electronic record system can also help prevent running certain tests twice, saving you, money.
"Lots of times I may have a patient that will go see a cardiologist. Sometimes a cardiologist may check a patients cholesterol panel and often times we are doing the same thing," said Harman. "So if we can see where that was done just a month or two ago, obviously we can save the patient some money in that regard too."
The system will even call in your prescription to the pharmacy of your choice. Taking out the guess work for the doctor and patient.
"It goes directly to the pharmacy. We rarely hand write prescriptions these days with the exception of a few controlled substances that are required to be hand written."
A convenient new records system that is aiming to improve patient care. The new system also allows doctors to log-in for remote access to all information about patients.
Palmetto Health says they hope to have their entire electronic medical records system up by September.