Epic EMR system now in use in several Pediatric Specialty Clinics
By Michele Rainford and Giselle Torres
SEPT. 25, 2007--Wouldn’t it be nice if all your health information was tucked away in one nice, neat, secure place? A place where your health care providers, from Galveston to Clear Lake, could confirm, even almost anticipate, the most important details of your health care with just a few, simple keystrokes? UTMB is getting there, and Children’s Hospital is helping lead the way in the latest roll out of the Epic Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system.
The four-phase implementation of the Epic EMR system in UTMB’s Children’s Health programs went live on Aug. 28 in the specialty care clinics located on the first floor of Children’s Hospital. This first phase included the pediatric specialty areas of Behavioral Pediatrics, Endocrinology, Genetics and Immunology/Allergy. It also included the Pediatric Specialty Care Clinic located in Clear Lake. Other Pediatric Specialty Outpatient Clinics are expected to become fully integrated with the EMR by the end of the year.
Island Pediatrics was the first UTMB area to be fully functional with the EMR in the spring of 2005. The Pediatrics Community-Based Clinics in Alvin, League City, Friendswood and Texas City were soon to follow with the system in the summer of 2005.
The EMR is being brought online across campus in a multi-phased effort that is fifty percent complete. Eventually, all patient care areas will use the EMR system for the documentation of patient care.
The system allows health care providers to store and access important health information about patients in one central database, whether the patient is treated at Island Pediatrics, the Clear Lake Specialty clinic, or one of Pediatrics’ community-based clinics. The system will help reduce errors, increase continuity of care and help faculty and staff anticipate and respond to patient’s needs.
Children’s health services at UTMB date back to the university’s founding, and UTMB was home to the first freestanding children’s hospital in Texas. Today’s Children’s Hospital is a component of the Department of Pediatrics, which is the fourth largest department in the School of Medicine. Pediatrics includes 79 faculty and nearly 100 staff, each of whom is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of UTMB’s youngest patients.
The hospital admits about 3,000 patients per year, with full-service facilities providing cutting-edge care for general pediatric inpatients, children in need of intensive care services, and inpatient services for children with chronic medical needs. UTMB also provides care for more than 7,000 newborns each year, with its Neonatal Intensive Care faculty and staff caring for some of the most fragile and tiny Texans, in addition to many healthy babies from all over the region.
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