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21-Apr-2003
New OB/GYN Records System Improves Patient Care
Prospect, KY (21 April 2003) – At Southern Women’s Care Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Monica A. Stone is serving patients better. She hasn’t learned a new medical technique, nor has she installed a cappuccino machine in the waiting room. The crucial enhancement Stone has made in her office is to create and maintain more accurate records and access those records more quickly, while keeping administrative costs down. Southern Women’s Care is one of the first OB/GYN offices to use AdvantaChart™ electronic medical records system.

Instead of taking time to dictate notes after each patient is seen, or at the end of a long day filled with interruptions, Stone enters patient information with a few computer keystrokes. “We’re charting new territory, literally,” Stone said. “For decades, doctors have dictated notes. That meant it took two people to create the record, the doctor and the transcriptionist. It also allowed the possibility of error. The doctor could be interrupted while dictating and omit an important piece of information, or the transcriptionist could misunderstand the doctor and record something inaccurately.”

Stone added, “Even without the risk of error, the traditional record-keeping method is inefficient. With AdvantaChart™, I enter data right after I see a patient, and no one else has to be involved. There’s no filing to be done, no filing cabinets taking up space, and when I need one lab result I don’t have to search through an inch-thick paper file to find it. A few minutes could make a huge difference if a patient is in labor!”

To start a record in the AdvantaChart™ system, patients complete a simple, one-page form. An office staff member scans the form into the computer and creates the record without a single bit of typing. From then on, the doctor or staff can note phone calls, examination results, test and lab reports, and hospitalizations without using paper. Doctors can even enter information while they’re seeing a patient if they choose to use a wireless tablet computer.

Kristi Hinton, an LPN at Southern Women’s Care, said having AdvantaChart™ has improved their service. “It makes creating patient charts faster, and we can pull information from a chart quicker, too. We’ve increased our efficiency so much that we’re able to see more patients in a day’s time.”