Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, a Pawtucket-based nonprofit that runs health clinics in Pawtucket and Central Falls, has adopted electronic medical records, bringing this critical technology to a segment of the health care system where paper is still the norm.
Kerrie Jones Clark, executive director of the Rhode Island Health Center Association, said BVCHC finished phasing in its new electronic medical records system in early August.
Horsham, Penn.-based NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, developed the electronic medical records system, which manages the health center’s nearly 10,000 medical and dental patients in Pawtucket and Central Falls.
The system is designed to help providers at the clinic better care for patients by sharing and managing clinical and administrative patient information through a comprehensive, single-source application.
It manages all aspects of a patient’s health care records, incorporating clinical notes from doctors and dentists with pharmacy and lab information and appointment, billing and insurance data.
“They’re moving from paper records to an entire electronic system, so instead of having four pages of notes in a medical record for a visit they’re going to have one little electronic paragraph,” Clark said. “It’s going to be a great thing – things are going to be faster, and they’re going to guarantee to be much more accurate and legible.”
In recent years, the health care industry and the federal government have poured significant resources into pushing widespread adoption of electronic medical records, in the hopes of bringing down the costs of care and reducing medical errors.
The electronic medical record network implemented by BVCHC enables doctors to find information quickly in an emergency, alerts them to allergies that a patient may have to a medication, and automatically prompts health providers to order the correct lab tests.
BVCHC is the first community health center in Rhode Island to implement such a system, Clark said. “It’s exciting for us, because the community health centers often are in a position to lead in the trend, and this is definitely the case with electronic health records,” she said.
BVCHC is one of 11 federally supported community health centers in Rhode Island and serves 9,535 medical and dental patients a year at its clinics in Pawtucket and Central Falls, mostly RIte Care beneficiaries and uninsured patients.
On Aug. 9, BVCHC Executive Director Raymond Lavoie and Dr. Jerry Fingerut, the center’s medical director, hosted an event to unveil the new system. Attending were U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts and Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle.
The event was scheduled to coincide with National Health Center Week. •
Blackstone Valley Community Health Care Inc. is a Pawtucket-based nonprofit providing health and dental care through clinics in Pawtucket and Central Falls. Its primary-care model stresses prevention, education and patient empowerment. For more information, go to blackstonechc.org.
