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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2010
Contact: Caryl Lucas
Director of Communications
973-789-6034
Newark Community Health Centers, Inc. Launches Electronic Medical Records System at Orange Health Center
New State of the Art Electronic Medical Records Increases Efficiency, Speeds Up Patient Encounters & Improves Medical Billing
Newark, NJ – Newark Community Health Centers, Inc. launched an electronic medical records/patient management (EMR/PM) system on Monday, May 3, 2010.
Peter R. Velez, President & CEO of Newark Community Health Centers, Inc., said the federally qualified health center (FQHC).
Will be implementing the EMR technology across the health center’s network during the next six months, resulting in greater efficiency and quality care.
“After countless months and countless meetings with EMR vendors and training staff, NCHC is proud to announce that we are on the move with our new eClinicalWorks (EMR/PM) system,” said Velez. “With this implementation, important information such as blood type, prescribed drugs and the medical condition and other aspects of a patients’ medical history will be accounted for much more quickly.”
Velez also anticipates that NCHC’s patients will benefit greatly from the “paperless’ move.
“This is great news for our patients who will have access to and benefit from state of the art technology,” this “paperless” will result in greater access to patient information by the agency’s staff. “With the use of eClinicalWorks, our providers and staff will have faster access to patient information. Our doctors are able to monitor the patients’ progress and prescriptions easily.”
This major change in NCHC’s operations, will allow the health center network to eliminate more than three years of patient charts, improve onsite patient flow, patient scheduling, medical billing and all practice management reporting.
For the past eight weeks, eClinicalWorks staff has provided on site training for NCHC’s management and clinical staff. More than 150 of the health center’s employees, including the front desk, billing department and the call center also attended a series of hands-on training provided by eClinicalWorks on patient registration, e-prescribing, e-faxing, scanning patient records and payment posting. Greater ease-of-use, along with sophisticated reporting capabilities, was the primary reason NCHC selected eClinicalWorks."
Dr. Nancy Tham, the Chief Medical Officer for Newark Community Health Centers, Inc., said she was excited her providers would have access to eClinicalWorks and the enhanced reporting capabilities and safe, secure electronic portals to a protected central database.
“For the providers, our new system has checks and balances to improve and secure the privacy of our patient’s medical records,” said Dr. Tham. “This is such good news for NCHC as we move forward. The EMR also gives our providers a snapshot of the medical history of their patients in one screen.”
The new EMR/PM technology, will allow the health organization to process its billing claims in a faster and more efficient way. Internal challenges such as improving patient flow, increasing productivity and bringing in revenue faster from our insurance carriers will be addressed.
NCHC used to have to wait at least 45 days to collect payments, but under the new EMR/PM System, the health centers will be able to obtain payments in a shorter time period.
The federally qualified health center network, which served more than 23,000 patients last year, serves a vulnerable population of low-income, uninsured, underinsured residents, and more and more working class and middle class families as a result of the current recession.
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