My First EHR Experience

Written By: One pleasantly surprised patient

I had been hearing mixed reviews about Electronic Health Records ("EHR") in the news and online a lot this year.  It seemed to me that all the opinions were from physicians and I couldn't find info from the patient’s perspective. I certainly wanted to know more.

I recently received a mailing from my doctor's office here in Santa Fe, NM letting me know that they had just converted to “EHR” and are "fully operational." I am a relatively young, healthy guy, but wanting to see what all the EHR buzz was about, I made an appointment for a checkup since it had been awhile. Dad always used to say, "you're your own best advocate son," and I figured I should probably take a little more interest in the management of my health and well-being. 

I hadn't been to my doctor in over a year, hadn't been to any hospital or ER in even longer. The doctor's office was much more alive than I remembered. In the waiting room, they had installed a digital screen which relayed basic health information, waiting times and even had trivia which kept me entertained. When I approached the admin desk to check in, the receptionist politely pointed behind me to a kiosk where I was able to check in virtually. I had never done this before so I needed some help to get going. Once I got used to the format, the prompts were easy to follow. My check in took less than 10 minutes and was a lot more user-friendly than filling out those boring repetitious forms on a clipboard.

I didn't have a stopwatch running, but my wait time seemed to be shorter. It could have been because I was passing time with the trivia and health facts, nonetheless when I was called in I was surprised how easy that first hurdle was. Ah, but now comes the real waiting time. This is where I wait to see the nurse, he/she asks me questions those of which I would've already answered when I called to make the appointment also when I checked in earlier, and then takes some vitals and leaves me to I sit in the exam room forever until the doctor arrives… but that was not to be the case. 

The nurse entered the room with an iPad2 in hand (!?) and instantly brought up my file and confirmed what I had told the receptionist a few weeks prior when I made the appointment. I was there for a basic checkup but also had some other symptoms I wanted to address while I was there. What information I did add to make clarifications, she directly input to the iPad2 (this aspect shows importance later) and more importantly, all the information from my last visit, some random time I was in the ER in New Mexico for strep throat and the info I input at the check-in kiosk was right there, it was like she was psychic. 

That rather cool experience passed and shortly thereafter my doctor arrived with an iPad2 in had as well. As we discussed my visit I noticed much more eye contact and interaction since he was able to more leisurely enter information via point and click on the iPad as opposed to hurriedly scribbling down notes. And that little tidbit I mentioned would be important earlier-was that the small clarifications I mentioned to the nurse were automatically updated and directly sent to my doctor so he was already armed with that info when he entered the room. Being a basic checkup, my visit went smoothly. They noticed I was behind on some treatments I had been avoiding and gave me some options to schedule them online. With the EHR they could directly email and set up contact for the each specialist in different locations I needed to see and include me on the correspondence, the specialist actually emailed me times and dates available and that I could retrieve on my smart phone. So I did not have to do all the calling around myself.  I really liked the E-prescribing option as well that can save me loads of time in the future. 

At the end of the appointment the doctor shook my hand and let me know that my bill would be emailed and I could set up payment online. Wow! I talked to the office manager about my concerns regarding security. She gave me a handout on HIPPA regulations and how their certified EHR system is totally compliant. Overall this experience was top-notch. Seeing all these capabilities, I am going to make sure all my future healthcare providers use at least some form of EHR. If they can make a routine checkup this easy, I’m imagining visits to the dentist might even be less stressful and visits to the ER more accommodating. It leaves me to wonder why more doctors do not convert to EHR and why more people don't demand these services from their physicians.  

I’ve heard that some patients have found serious errors in their medical records once they had access to digital copies through their providers’ online EHR interface.  I don’t know if I would feel angry or just relieved to have a chance to correct such mistakes.  I’d love to hear other patients’ experiences with EHR, so please submit your stories in the comment section so I can see how my experience compares.