ScanCARE Blog

Electronic Medical Record systems have now been widely adopted in Australia and around the world. Possibly the most publicised roll out has been in the United States with the government providing significant fiscal incentives under the Meaningful Use program.

In this blog I use the terms EHR and EMR interchangeably.

In the US for example it's common to use EHR (Electronic Health Record) as the term for a patient’s medical record, whereas in Australia, the personal health record system, MyHealth Record is commonly referred to as an EHR. In Australia, the patient record is generally referred to as an EMR (Electronic Medical Record)

Complying with Australian standards AS4187 or AS4815 can be a difficult task for any health care facility, but for office based health care facilities, physical space limitations can make it even more difficult. Finding space to wash, wrap and sterilize surgical instruments can be tricky for the smaller facilities and bench space is typically limited so finding space to put things can be a challenge.

AS2828.1 is a standard that specifies the requirements for the physical aspects of health records. It covers size, quality, layout, and colour. The objective of the standard is to improve the quality of health care by facilitating communication between healthcare professionals. Standardisation of medical record across health care facilities can help achieve this.

If you are considering a digital patient records system, it may well be worth looking to see that the system is AS2828 compliant.

Why, you ask? After all AS2828 is about paper medical records right?

Well...not exactly.

Somewhere in a health care clinic in the inner suburbs of a large Australian capital city – Tuesday 8am

Hey Betty...Have you seen the chart for Mr Smith...? I got it out yesterday afternoon with a bunch of others as we have a really busy day today.

AS2828 is a standard containing 2 parts. Part 1 relates to the format of paper based patient health records and part 2 relates to digitised or scanned health records.

At first glance AS2828.1 appears to relate only to paper records, however the standard has implications for those who are considering moving to a digital medical records system.

A quicker and easier way for CSSD Managers and Perioperative Nurses to pass AS/NZS 4187 compliance audits

You know the feeling, accreditation is getting closer and your stress and anxiety levels are becoming elevated. Tomorrow is the day and you’re wondering, hoping, praying that you’ve crossed the "T's" and dotted the "I's". You’re not going to sleep well tonight, you will replay that same old movie in your mind over and over again.

I know from personal experience that accreditation is one of the most stressful periods in the life of a manager. Scancare is accredited to AS NZS ISO 9001-2008 and we are about to undergo external accreditation again. For managers of CSSD’s and theatres who run manual tracking systems, it is an incredible amount of work making sure that their documentation is update and accurate.

The good news is that when it comes to AS/NZS4187 compliance, for those who use an electronic tracking system based on the principles of quality management, most of the leg work is already done.

Paperless or digital medical records management systems, are the buzz term these days. It seems like just about every medical practice manager at private and public hospitals is seriously considering adopting digital patient charts and going paperless. There are multitudes of systems out there that, from a distance, all look similar. So which one is right for your medical organisation and what are the most important things you should consider when making the change? 

Read on if you want to discover 4 aspects that you need to consider when making the change from a paper system to a digital medical records system.