News & Events
LMA announces its transition into Electronic Medical Records
News from the President
F. Strait Fairey, Jr., MD
2005 will be an exciting transition year for Lowcountry Medical Associates. LMA has embarked on implementing a new electronic health record and practice management system through a contract with NextGen. The doctors of LMA recognize this as an important investment in better health care management.
Historically, both doctors and patients have been frustrated with the processes of health care, i.e. difficult communications on the phone, problems with maintaining records, obtaining appointments, waiting times, and keeping up with insurance and other payments. While new systems may not solve all these problems, LMA thinks a new record management system will help streamline and/or eliminate many of them.
Better records will reduce confusion regarding medicines, provide a more comprehensive database, ensure accurate maintenance of immunizations, and allow better doctor-to-doctor communications for improvement of health care continuity. LMA will be able to analyze and develop strategies to improve health maintenance and illness management across each of our disciplines.
Our new system will mean reduced paper hassles for our patients…one registration point for physician care, radiology, laboratory and physical therapy. We will have automatic inclusion of electronic reports (ancillary services and hospital) in each patient's record. Upon completion of our electronic records, no charts will need to be pulled to respond to patient inquiries. Prescriptions can be faxed or e-mailed directly to pharmacies with accurate record keeping and automatic safeguards regarding drug interactions. Appointment recalls can be made automatically. Coding can be checked for accuracy and completeness.
Implementation of NextGen will take place over 2005 and perhaps beyond, first at ancillary service locations and selected practices in each discipline. When we are satisfied with the processes at those sites, all LMA practices will be brought onto the system. The doctors of LMA are committed to continually improving the doctor-patient relationship and are excited about these new advances in our capacity to improve healthcare.
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