The EHR Disconnect

A few days ago, one of my children had to visit the emergency room.

Sparing the drama, there was a need to see a specialist and have an ultrasound accomplished.

A urine sample was also taken, but we were told we could leave before the results were found.

In the day of electronic health record (EHR) systems, I was please with the speed at which information flowed through the hospital.

We were given the all clear, with instructions to take an anti-biotic and see the pediatrician in a few days.

2 days later we are at the pediatrician’s office.

They also use an EHR…BUT…a different one than the hospital uses.

This ped visit was pre-scheduled for sport physicals.

When the nurse asked about any hospital visits, I asked here if his visit a few days back was showing in their system.

It wasn’t.

She mentioned checking the fax machine.
Seriously?
Yes, well, not exactly a fax machine, but a fax server that, can suck the contents of the fax into their EHR.

Excellent data transfer.

I was then asked a series of questions, that I couldn’t answer and should have been in the records like: what antibiotic and who was the doc he saw?

Nice.

Until there is true, near real-time data transfer among EHR systems, we aren’t doing a whole lot of good.