As a practising family physician in Scarborough, Ont, I read Dr Greiver’s arguments in the October 2015 issue regarding electronic medical records (EMRs) not improving quality of care with interest.1 I think that maybe Dr Griever just had a bad experience with her choice of EMR or vendor.
There have been great advances in the past 5 years in the adoption of EMRs and usability. I get all my laboratory, imaging, and even hospital reports electronically uploaded into my EMR system, Open Source Clinical Application Resource (OSCAR).
Electronic medical records are not used the same way as paper charts. It is a dynamic process.
I can proactively recall patients for Papanicolaou tests, fecal occult blood tests, hepatitis B follow-up, diabetes follow-up, etc, by searching for patients who need them. I even upload my Cancer Care Ontario screening assessment report in my OSCAR EMR for proactive recall. If there is a recall of a drug, I can search all my patients to see who is taking it and recall them. I can recall patients who do not control their hemoglobin A1c levels. These features would be next to impossible or very tedious to do manually.
Also, I do not need any more filing clerks who used to misfile my paper reports! I also save thousands of dollars on rental storage space for charts and cabinets!
At the 2015 Family Medicine Forum in Toronto, Ont, I gave a presentation on the OSCAR EMR. Readers can find all the work I do on the OSCAR development online.2
Footnotes
Competing interests
Dr Pun is an OSCAR McMaster EMR user and developer.
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