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EMRs make care coordination easier for diabetes, heart disease patients
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 11, 2011
A study released by the eHealth Initiative found use of an electronic medical record in primary care medical homes resulted in improved care coordination among patients with type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
For the study, 119 patients with diabetes and heart disease from two pilot testing sites were tracked over six months. Each site had an EMR and a care coordinator on staff.
Through use of an EMR, the sites were able to demonstrate improvements in care planning, physician-patient communication, intra-office coordination, enhanced use of the EMR, enhanced patient coaching, and improvements in referring patients to specialists. The study also identified health information exchange issues that needed to be addressed.
"We knew going into this project that interaction between caregivers and patients was important, but our observations at the two test sites drove home the fact that care coordination requires ongoing and explicit three-way communication between patient, primary care physician and specialist in order to be successful and sustainable," said Jennifer Covich Bordenick, chief executive officer of the eHealth Initiative.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/07/11/bibf0711.htm.
