In The News: Notre Dame’s University Health Services implements electronic records

NEWSWIRE:  September 7, 2016

DATELINE: Notre Dame University, Indiana

Based in Notre Dame’s St. Liam Hall, University Health Services (UHS) has implemented Electronic Medical Records (EMR), a move to try and improve the quality and efficiency of care on campus.

Director Sharon McMullen says “our EMR interfaces with a national drug pharmacy database, and if we prescribe medication that a student has an allergy to, the EMR alerts us to that.”

She says the EMR will increase efficiency of care, since use of paper charts in the past meant necessary patient information was hard to organize and locate.  “The student waits while we go scurrying around for the paper charts, so it disrupts the continuity of care,” McMullen said.  

It will also make it easier for students to monitor their own medical information by using the EMR.  She says “the EMR brings our patient portal into the 21st century, so now we can transmit a student’s lab results directly to her through a secure portal.”

McMullen says that the UHS will require time to reach the high level of efficiency she eventually expects with EMR.  

“We’re really concerned about students having to wait to get in to see providers, so to combat that, we’ve loosened up our scheduling, we’ve asked our providers to come off of their administrative time, and we’ve doubled up at some high volume times,” McMullen said.

UHS is also conducting an Organizational Analysis and Design (OAD), which is aimed at finding venues for positive change within an organization.  Continuation and expansion of medical education for UHS’S clinicians is one goal of the OAD process. They also want to provide care at a greater range of times.  

Read the full article here.