To the Editor,
Re: Mixed reviews for electronic records, May 26.
The new electronic health record will provide all of a patient’s important health history and information in one easily accessible location, making it easier and safer for health care providers to manage the patient’s care.
Nanaimo Regional General Hospital employs over 2,000 skilled employees who work hard to provide acute health services. What your article failed to acknowledge is the tremendous amount of work and effort NRGH site staff and physicians have put into designing, building and testing this new system. This includes clinical teams comprised of hundreds of nurses, doctors, radiologists, pharmacists and other health-care workers that are now implementing the new electronic health record.
What we also found troublesome in the article is the reference that the system is not safe. The system is safe and a dedicated team, in collaboration with staff and care providers, continue to make refinements to optimize the system.
Like other hospitals, we meet the health care requirements of a growing population with increasingly complex health care needs.
We are proud of the exceptional work staff and care providers are accomplishing at NRGH to implement one of the most innovative, patient-focused safety systems in the country.
Damian Langedirector, clinical operations, Nanaimo Regional General Hospital
Marci Eklandsite director, Nanaimo Regional General Hospital
To the Editor,
Re: Mixed reviews for electronic records, May 26.
I work as an urgent care physician at the fully electronic Oceanside Health Centre in Parksville and as an emergency department physician at the paper-based West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni. I wouldn’t give up computers at the former, and long to have an electronic health record at the latter.
I understand the frustrations expressed in the media recently by my Nanaimo colleagues. The emergency department at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital is the busiest on Vancouver Island and can often be chock-a-block full with very sick patients. The new electronic health record certainly has added strain to a hospital already bursting at the seams.
Perhaps predestined for a career in medicine, teachers began taking note of my ‘unique’ penmanship in the primary grades. This has led to some close calls. I remember an emergency department patient who was given morphine when I handwrote Maxeran because the nurse couldn’t read my handwriting (thankfully the patient needed both).
When I order an x-ray electronically at Oceanside, the radiologist knows exactly what I’m looking for. At West Coast General, the radiologist might think I’m worried about a collapsed lung (a pneumothorax) when really I’m worried about a lung infection (pneumonia).
During my next shift, I’ll almost certainly see a patient who was recently treated by one of my outstanding colleagues at the Nanaimo Hospital. That patient may well receive better care because the electronic health record will tell me and my team exactly what happened during their stay at NRGH.
There is lots of work to do to improve the system, but in the long run, patients, families and health care providers can all benefit from a well-functioning electronic health record.
Ben T. Williams, MDNanaimo
